John Christoudoulou's response to the article regarding UK government support schemes

On the 25th of October 2021 the digital edition of Kathimerini on www.kathimerini.com.cy published an article with the title "John Christodoulou: The billionaire that received state support" (the “Publication”) which may have left wrong impressions and innuendos regarding Mr. Christodoulou and his companies receiving financial support from the British government within the state support schemes.

The source of the Publication was the London Times and for that reason we did not deem it necessary to further investigate what was written therein and have, as a result, failed to properly present the true facts.

We would like to state that, after having received an explanation, it is clear that the funds received by Mr Christodoulou’s companies from state support schemes were solely for the benefit of the companies’ employees.  The funds did not benefit the companies themselves or Mr. Christodoulou personally.  Neither Mr. Christodoulou nor his companies have received any loans from the government. The participation of some of Mr Christodoulou’s companies in state support schemes was exclusively for the purpose of supporting employees whose employment was suspended due to pandemic-related restrictions that had been imposed.

We acknowledge that there was no inappropriate behaviour by Mr. Christodoulou, nor were there any false statements or hypocrisy on his part regarding the above issue, and we apologise for any implied or implicit conclusions to the contrary that could be drawn from the Publication. The original Publication will therefore be withdrawn from the Kathimerini site.