Exness Bought €75 Million Land from the Bank of Cyprus: Report

Exness, a major retail trading brand, has bought a piece of land from the Bank of Cyprus, paying €75 million, according to a report by Kathimerini Cyprus. The property is in Paphos and spans about 200,000 square metres.

A Future “Exness Campus”?

Although Exness has yet to confirm the deal or its plans for the land, the report, citing insiders, outlined that the land acquisition might be part of the broker’s “backup plan”. Exness might use the land to develop an “Exness Campus” in the future to house its staff or provide employee accommodation.

The location of the large plot is also strategic for Exness, as it is only a 40-minute drive from its main office in Limassol.

Over the years, Exness has emerged as one of the top forex and contracts for differences (CFDs) brokers globally in terms of trading volume, a metric usually directly linked to a broker’s revenue. However, it stopped publicly posting its trading volume last year.

Although Exness made its name by offering trading services to retail traders in Europe, it no longer provides retail trading services on the continent. Its focus is now on emerging markets.

Read more: What Do Exness, IronFX, FXTM, and RoboMarkets Have in Common?

Bank of Cyprus’ Real Estate Dilution

The Paphos property’s ownership was transferred to the Bank of Cyprus’ Real Estate Management Unit (REMU) through a debt-to-asset swap with the Leptos Group, which is tied to the now-stalled “Neapolis Smart EcoCity” project.

The deal with Exness was the most expensive asset REMU, created in 2016, has ever sold.

The local news outlet further highlighted that after the Exness deal, the Cypriot bank’s real estate portfolio stands at €575 million, significantly down from €1.6 billion in previous years.

Interestingly, the Paphos Mayor, Phedonas Phedonos, recently alleged that some forex firms based in Cyprus are being used to launder drug money through complex shell company networks in Latin America. His comments also prompted the Cypriot financial market regulator to clarify its overseas jurisdiction. However, it must be noted that there is no connection between the Paphos Mayor and the latest property deal by the Bank of Cyprus.