Athens News Agency: News in English (AM), 98-06-12

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr>

NEWS IN ENGLISH

ATHENS, GREECE, 12/06/1998 (ANA)

MAIN HEADLINES

• Economy soon to benefit from government policy, says Papantoniou
• Alpha Credit Bank repeats interest in buying Ionian Bank
• Greek stocks slump 2.19 pct, turnover edges down
• Greek state telecom defends bid in Moldova tender
• Intracom halves nominal price of shares
• Clashes around the country over teacher appointment exams
• Parliament approves abolition of naturalisation code Article
• Greece rejects any EU summit move on Turkey ties
• Tsohatzopoulos stresses autonomy as the key for Kosovo solution
• Greek firms see delay, not disaster, in Kosovo ban
• New Greek request for return of Parthenon marbles
• ND ethics council backs lifting of deputy's Parliamentary immunity
• Karamanlis says almost two decades of opportunities squandered
• Aluminium de Grece records higher profits in first quarter
• Weather
• Foreign exchange

NEWS IN DETAIL

The economy will soon start to benefit from the government's policy, boding well for 1999, National Economy and Finance Minister Yannos Papantoniou said yesterday.

"Four years have not gone to waste, and we have gained much ground and time ... Developments in 1998 are setting the scene for positive policies in 1999," Mr. Papantoniou said.

He was speaking after a meeting of the country's economic leadership chaired by Prime Minister Costas Simitis. Among those taking part were ministers and central bank governor Lucas Papademos.

According to government sources, improvements in the economy this year may permit a stronger social angle in the 1999 budget without jeopardising alignment targets with other European Union economies.

The budget was on target, revenue was rising and GDP growth would hit 3.5 percent for the second consecutive year, but public spending still needed to drop, he said.

Alpha Credit Bank repeats interest in buying Ionian Bank

The chairman of Alpha Credit Bank told shareholders yesterday that the bank was still interested in purchasing state-owned Ionian Bank.

"We're definitely interested in Ionian Bank. But of course our future growth doesn't depend on it," Alpha Credit's chairman, Yannis Costopoulos, said.

A 51 percent stake in Ionian would bring Alpha Credit, the country's largest private bank, a nearly 20 percent share in the domestic market, Mr. Costopoulos said.

Acquiring Ionian's branch network would free Alpha Credit Bank, a blue chip on the bourse, from opening 50 new outlets in the next three years, as planned.

The acquisition would also bring Alpha a consolidated balance sheet of nearly 20 billion dollars, the minimum needed for a bank to make its mark on a European level, he said.

Greek stocks slump 2.19 pct, turnover edges down

Greek equities remained under pressure yesterday to lose substantial ground on the Athens Stock Exchange in declining turnover.

The general index fell 2.19 percent to sink below support at 2,500 points, finishing at 2,485.74 points.

Trade was light to moderate with turnover at 45.2 billion drachmas. Sector indices ended lower across the board.

Banks fell 2.26 percent, Insurance eased 2.19 percent, Investment dropped 2.26 percent, Leasing plunged 6.27 percent, Industrials fell 2.47 percent, Construction was 2.80 percent lower, Miscellaneous dropped 3.70 percent and Holding fell 1.87 percent.

The parallel market index for small cap companies dropped 2.95 percent. The FTSE/ASE 20 index fell 1.93 percent to 1,482.68.

National Bank of Greece ended at 40,600 drachmas, Ergobank at 26,700, Alpha Credit Bank at 30,750, Delta Dairy at 4,125,Titan Cement at 21,500, Intracom at 23,900 and Hellenic Telecommunications Organisation at 8, 400.

Greek state telecom defends bid in Moldova tender

Hellenic Telecommunications Organisation (OTE) yesterday defended its bid in an international tender to buy a minority stake in Moldova's state telecom.

OTE's chief executive officer, George Chryssolouris, told a news conference that the bid was above board, countering a report in an Athens daily that claimed vested interests were involved in the deal.

Mr. Chryssolouris said that OTE's board had acted in full transparency by hiring Ionian Finance and Credit Suisse First Boston as financial consultants for its participation in the tender.

Mr. Chryssolouris said that an agreement had yet to be reached over the purchase of a 40 percent state in the Moldovan firm.

Intracom halves nominal price of shares

Greece's largest telecoms group, Intracom, decided at a general shareholders' meeting yesterday to halve the nominal price of shares from 700 to 350 drachmas each, and distribute two new shares for each old one.

The group's turnover is estimated to reach 40 billion drachmas in the first half of 1998 - compared to 23 billion in the same period in 1997. Exports are projected to exceed 10 billion, up from 6.5 billion, while pre-tax profits eight billion, compared to 5.7 billion in the first half of 1997.

Intracom founder and president Socrates Kokkalis said 1998 results would considerably exceed initial projections due to positive developments in the group's activities, particularly with regard to weapons systems and exports.

Clashes around the country over teacher appointment exams

Police around the country yesterday morning clashed with unappointed educators and teacher union members attempting to take over school buildings set for exam centres in a nation-wide competition to change the way appointments are made for state schools.

One police officer was slightly injured and two protesters were arrested yesterday morning when about 70 demonstrators managed to break through a police guard at a primary school in at the Athens suburb of Pefki.

Protesters managed to take over exam centres in the rest of the country, namely, in Pyrgos, Agrinio, Kozani and Rhodes, despite police being stationed at all the 32 centres.

Teachers representatives yesterday warned of a "general upheaval" across the country if the ministry persisted in holding the examinations, to be sat by 46,500 unemployed teachers to determine whether and when they will be appointed to state school jobs .

The exam for new appointments to state schools is expected to gradually phase out the decades-long waiting list for recruitment and provide 20 per cent of new teaching appointments for the 1998-1999 school year.

The government later condemned the violence, saying it was the work of "a small group of teachers". "They do their vocation no honour," government spokesman Dimitris Reppas said, adding that the majority of teachers had nothing to do with "this sort of behaviour".

Parliament approves abolition of naturalisation code Article

Parliament yesterday approved the proposed abolition of Article 19 of the Constitution's naturalisation code, which stipulates that non-ethnic Greeks can lose their Greek citizenship in the event they leave the country permanently.

Interior Minister Alekos Papadopoulos clarified that the abolition will not be retroactive, as was requested by the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), the Coalition for the Left and Progress (Synaspismos) and three Moslem deputies.

However, several ruling PASOK, main opposition New Democracy and Democratic Social Movement (DHKKI) deputies disagreed with the proposed amendment.

Greece rejects any EU summit move on Turkey ties

Greece said yesterday it would not agree at next week's EU summit to offer Turkey better relations with the European Union and would not succumb to pressure from other member states to do so.

"This is a problem that has already been solved," Foreign Minister Theodoros Pangalos said in an interview. "We are not in the Union to talk all the time about...Turkey."

Mr. Pangalos dismissed efforts by the British EU presidency to find a way to ease Turkish anger at being left off a list of EU candidates at a summit in Luxembourg last December.

He said Turkey, which is at odds with Greece over sovereignty in the Aegean and over Cyprus, had done nothing but engage in "insults, blackmail and threats" against the EU since being left off the new-members list.

Mr. Pangalos also said the Russian-made anti-aircraft missiles destined for Cyprus would not be ready until November.

Tsohatzopoulos stresses autonomy as the key for Kosovo solution

Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic is theoretically correct in claiming that the Kosovo crisis was an internal problem, although the crisis is leading to an explosion with international repercussions, and therefore, he cannot legitimately refuse the region's autonomy, Defence Minister Akis Tsohatzopoulos said in Brussels yesterday.

"The international community is asking for a collective decision so that NATO may be able to exercise effective pressure on Mr. Milosevic and Kosovo Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova," he said in an interview after the end of a NATO defence ministers' session.

Mr. Tsohatzopoulos that no measure proposed could be implemented without a legal basis.

"The Kosovo problem is not solved through military means, that will stoke the fires. The solution is dialogue with a view to an autonomous administration, which ethnic Albanians have the right to claim," he stressed.

Greek firms see delay, not disaster, in Kosovo ban

Greek firms with vested interests in Serbia say a recent European Union ban forbidding new investment in the Balkan state will put back their expansion plans, but not their long-term goals.

"There will be a delay in our investment programme," said George Karaplis, chief financial officer and international vice president at Greek state telecom OTE . "But it's an issue of strategy and we cannot abandon it."

The European Union imposed the ban on Serbia on Monday in response to Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's military crackdown in the ethnic Albanian province of Kosovo.

OTE, one of the biggest investors in Serbia, has bought 20 percent of Srbija Telecom and is eager to proceed with a $200 million, five-year investment plan.

Mr. Karaplis said: "We should not let temporary shortcomings influence our long-term plans." He said OTE could not afford to ignore a market of two million consumers, geographically close to Greece -- an important factor in telecoms -- a nd a necessary crossroads for further expansion in Romania and other Balkan countries.

Private Greek firms appeared equally eager to brush off the new sanctions as a temporary glitch. But they said the move could put off newcomers.

Titan Cement , one of several Greek firms eyeing Serbia, said it had considered a buyout there but would have to change its plans after the ban.

Stock market analysts said the sanctions were not expected to affect Greek listed firms, which have a long experience in the economically and politically turbulent Balkans.

"Companies that have ventured in the Balkans -- and Serbia -- are not expected to be hurt at the stock exchange as a result of the sanctions. The market saw it coming and pretty much discounted it," an analyst at Telesis Securities said.

New Greek request for return of Parthenon marbles

Culture ministry officials yesterday denied reports that Britain had rejected a proposal by Athens earlier this week for an international committee to examine the Parthenon Marbles.

"There is not such official announcement from the (British) foreign office, " the officials said.

They said Culture Minister Evangelos Venizelos would hand Britain's ambassador to Greece a formal request for the return of the 5th century BC sculptures at the beginning of next week.

Greece on Tuesday said it would demand an immediate inspection of the Parthenon Marbles in London following a disclosure by a British historian that the friezes were damaged during restoration at the British Museum in the late 1930s, museum staff had tried to clean them.

Mr. Venizelos said earlier that Greece would ask UNESCO, or UNESCO's International Council of Museums (ICOM), to set up a committee to inspect the condition of the marbles.

ND ethics council backs lifting of deputy's Parliamentary immunity

The main opposition New Democracy party yesterday decided to request from Parliament to lift deputy Costas Karaminas' immunity, so he may be investigated in the traffic death of a young woman riding in his car on June 1.

A ND ethics council, presided over former party leader Miltiades Evert, reached a decision unanimously, noting in its decision that in case the deputy's immunity is not lifted he should resign.

Mr. Karaminas was at the wheel of his Mercedes when the 26-year-old teacher, riding in the back seat, was killed when the vehicle collided with three other parked vehicles. According to police reports, the Samos deputy subsequently refused authorities' request to take a breathalyser.

The ethics council also decided that in case the deputy does not resign he will be referred to ND's disciplinary council with the question of his dismissal from the party.

Karamanlis says almost two decades of opportunities squandered

Main opposition New Democracy leader Costas Karamanlis yesterday called for the formulation of a clear, specific and cohesive agricultural policy, stressing that farm issues were a top priority for ND.

Speaking at a ND conference on the "Agenda 2000" programme and prospects of Greek agriculture, he said Greece had lost two decades of tremendous opportunities offered by the European Union, as fund inflows were not put to proper use and as a result pro ducers were not yet ready to face competitiveness.

"It is time to roll sleeves up," he said, stressing that the farm sector needed extensive institutional reform.

He noted that the cost of money for farmers borrowing from the Agricultural Bank of Greece (ATE) was higher than in commercial banks, and that 500 billion drachmas in loans were unlikely to be repaid.

He also recommended reductions in fuel and power rates for farmers, in VAT on imported farmers' equipment as well as lower inheritance tax on farm land.

Aluminium de Grece records higher profits in first quarter

Aluminium de Grece, a subsdiary of the French Pechiney multinational, recorded profits to the tune of US$12 million in the first quarter of '98, a company statement stated yesterday.

The favourable development is mainly atttibuted to the application of the "Challenge" restructuring programme.

The company plans to implement a $63.4 million-investment programme through 1999.

A current voluntary retirement programme, in application since early 1996, cost the company $8.5 million in 1997, with the number of retirees higher than expected.

First half-results for 1998 are expected to reflect a better climate in international markets in 1997, although a $150-tonne decrease in the price of the metal between January and May makes the outlook uncertain for the second half.

WEATHER

FOREIGN EXCHANGE

(C.E.)

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