As your readers may know, we already invested in the Bank of Cyprus, and have began to look at other opportunities. Several things attracted us to Cyprus; first of all, we regard buying shares in a big bank in a small country as buying a kind of stock option on the growth of the economy. Therefore, we have to analyse the longer-term outlook for the Cypriot economy.

We believe it has a good outlook, firstly because it has one of the best-educated populations in the world, with more college graduates as a percentage of the total workforce than any OECD country. This has resulted in the development of a very highly skilled, professional service industry, which provides all kinds of business services, and essentially is a substantial base for the economy, particularly when coupled with the tax treaties that Cyprus now has.

At the time we invested, Cyprus had treaties with 23 countries, and since then has added five more to this list, which massively expands the potential world of jurisdictions from which people might come into Cyprus from. This is a step in the right direction. The workforce also has some very specific skills, particularly in merchant vessel management, which is a huge, global industry.

Beyond that, there has been a steady flow of incorporations of new businesses in Cyprus, including businesses originating in Russia and the Ukraine despite the problems there, so in terms of the business services sector I think the outlook is very positive.

Moving on, there is tourism. Cyprus has beautiful beaches, marinas, hotel facilities, restaurants and even has potential for winter sports in the mountains. It has some very interesting archaeological sites thanks to the large number of civilisations and cultures that have been involved with Cyprus over the ages, making it a culturally rich place for tourists to visit. Going forward I believe that the government will successfully create a luxury casino and hotel development that will produce yet another reason for tourists to come to Cyprus.

We have all these positives, before we even begin to talk about the slightly speculative aspect of the natural gas deposits off the shores of Cyprus. Noble, the global exploration and production company, declared the gas to be commercially viable in mid-2015, and that could be a potentially huge, game changing event for Cyprus, both in terms of reducing costs on the island, and in terms of creating new export businesses. I believe that we are in a very exciting situation. Looking beyond that, there is the potential for pipelines, shipping the gas to Egypt, perhaps shipping it to mainland Europe, or an onshore LNG plant, depending on how the latest regional gas finds play out. It is definitely an exciting time.

Then finally, there is language. While Greek is the language, the business community, and indeed the wider population, speaks excellent English, which makes it very easy for business people from all over the world to operate there. I think the outlook for Cyprus itself is very strong, and that fundamentally attracted us to the Bank of Cyprus.