NICOSIA (Reuters) – Bank of Cyprus has rebuffed an offer of collaboration from Bank of Piraeus, Greece’s fourth-largest lender, which holds about 10 percent in the Cypriot bank. Bank executives said recently they wanted to collaborate with Bank of Cyprus, but that if this did not happen, the Greek bank would divest its stake. Bank of Cyprus said a letter sent by Bank of Piraeus requesting a meeting was not specific on what the Greek bank wanted. “Having considered that the said letter does not refer to any particular proposal for cooperation, the Board of Directors unanimously decided that there is no reason for the proposed meeting,” Bank of Cyprus said in a statement released late on Wednesday. It said it would examine any “comprehensive proposal” that would be in the interests of shareholders, staff and the island’s economy.

VIENNA (Reuters) – Verbund, Austria’s biggest utility, is planning to start its own power production in Greece to benefit from upcoming liberalization of the Greek electricity market, the company said yesterday. Verbund, which earlier this week launched a Turkish joint venture, did not give any details. Austrian newspaper WirtschaftsBlatt reported the company planned to buy a 70 percent stake Greece’s Heron, an operator of a gas-fired power plant, which is owned by Greek construction firm GEK Group. Verbund would invest a total of –400 million ($528 million) for the Heron stake and for a new gas-fired power plant, WirtschaftsBlatt reported. Verbund did not mention this deal in its statement and was not immediately reachable for comment. GEK declined to comment.

The Finance Ministry’s Special Inspections Service (SIS) has broken one of the country’s biggest ever rings selling bogus tax documents to other businesses, it was announced yesterday. The ring was comprised of three companies set up in 2000, which supplied forged receipts from which the buyers could claim back value added tax. Since November, when SIS started the probe, it has identified about 120 such receipts, of face value totaling –150 million, and is projecting that when it completes the investigation in February the figure will rise to about –500 million. The loss for public coffers is estimated at –150 million.

Cosmote, Greece’s largest mobile phone operator, said yesterday its Romanian subsidiary now has more than 1 million customers a week after celebrating its first anniversary in the country. Cosmote also has operations in Albania, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria. It had about 10 million customers at the beginning of November in the five countries. The firm said it aims to increase its total customer base to 15 million in 2009, with the Romanian market playing a large role in subscribers’ growth. (Reuters)

Athens-based and New York Stock Exchange-listed Tsakos Energy Navigation (TEN) has been declared ”Tanker Company of the Year – 2006” by Lloyd’s List.