Athens News Agency: News in English (PM), 99-08-05

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

NEWS IN ENGLISH

Athens, Greece, 05/08/1999 (ANA)

MAIN HEADLINES

• Kranidiotis in talks with Arafat
• Plane lands safely after scare
• Kavala at centre of European architectural interest
• Greece launches derivatives market on Aug. 27
• Latsis Group gets Ergobank
• Stocks rise in bargain hunting
• Kopelouzos Group in alliance with Italy's Enel
• Titan, Lafarge to buy Egyptian cement maker
• Greece on track for euro zone, analyst says
• Gasoline taxes slashed in effort to curtail inflation
• Britain's Prince Charles and sons in Greece
• Black Sea cruises set to coincide with eclipse
• Greece and Bulgaria to fight outbreak of epizootic disease
• To the "Daily Bulletin" subscribers
• Weather
• Foreign exchange

NEWS IN DETAIL

Greece's Alternate Foreign Minister Yiannos Kranidiotis on Wednesday night promised Palestinian Authority leader Yasser Arafat that he would raise the issue of the delay in the Middle East peace process at the European Union.

Kranidiotis arrived in Jerusalem on Tuesday on an official two-day visit to Israel, the first visit to Israel by a Greek government official since Labour leader Ehud Barak became prime minister.

In talks with Arafat in Jerusalem last night, which coincided with the Palestinian leader's 70th birthday, Arafat complained to Kranidiotis over what he called Barak's delaying tactics regarding implementation of the Wye river agreements.

Kranidiotis promised to take the issue up with the EU and present the Palestinian side's views during the September 1 meeting of the 15-nation bloc's political committee and also at the Council of Ministers meeting on 14-15 September.

Plane lands safely after scare

A Royal Jordanian Airlines cargo plane with a five-member crew landed safely at Athens International Airport on Thursday morning despite a malfunction in the aircraft's landing gear, airport authorities said.

The plane notified air traffic controllers as it was about to land that its landing gear would not lock into place.

The aircraft, which had about two hours' of fuel, was told to circle over the airport to allow foam to be spread over the tarmac in the event sparks ensued during the landing, and Civil Aviation Authority fire engines and ambulances were put on standby on the landing strip.

The plane later landed safely and none of the crew members were injured.

Kavala at centre of European architectural interest

Five hundred students of architecture from almost all the universities of Europe will be staying in Kavala until August 8 to study the port city's "Old Town" which constitutes a vivid reminder of the different cultures which have left their mark over the centuries.

Apart from its amphitheatrical position, the Old Town and Kavala in general have a large number of significant buildings erected during the last 200 years.

During their stay in Kavala, the students will be organising events in public places, holding workshops, discussions, lectures and even putting on concerts, to which the local people have been invited to attend.

In addition to places of interest in Kavala itself, the students will also be visiting nearby areas with unique architectural features, including Nestos, Paggaio and the island of Thassos.

Greece launches derivatives market on Aug. 27

Greece's new derivatives market is due for launch on August 27 after contracts are signed with its 20 members.

Ready to sign the contracts with the Athens Derivatives Market (ADM) and its clearing house are 16 brokerages and four banks.

The third and final stage of preparation for the launch began on June 21 with the exchange's future members holding mock trading trading sessions from their offices for about 40 days.

The banks due to become members of the ADM are National Bank of Greece, Commercial Bank of Greece, Ergobank and Xiosbank.

The brokerages are National, Hellenic, PSK, Sigma, Telesis, Alpha, Kappa, Midland, Xios, Ergo, Omega, Aspis, Devletoglou, Euroxx, Metrolife and Macedonia-Thrace.

Banking members of the market will have to receive approval from the central bank.

Until the end of the year, the banks will act as members of the clearing house and take part in non-equities derivatives trading, which is due to be introduced in the autumn.

Towards the end of the year, they will also gain the right to engage in equity derivatives trading.

Latsis Group gets Ergobank

The Latsis-owned EFG Bank Group said yesterday that it had acquired a 50.1 percent stake in Ergobank following the completion of its offer to the target bank's shareholders.

The offer to shareholders was made through Consolidated Eurofinance Holdings (CEH), the parent of EFG Eurobank, which is destined to merge with Ergobank under the terms of the deal.

CEH, which already owns 20.57 percent of Ergobank, will acquire 12,025,000 further shares in order to secure the controlling stake, the EFG Bank Group said in a statement.

Preliminary results indicated that that the during the June 21-August 4 tender, a total of around 30,000 Ergobank shareholders accepted the offer, stating willingness to hand over 22,000,000 shares for stock in EFG Eurobank plus cash.

Following oversubscription of the tender, all accepting shareholders will receive an allocation of up to 200 Ergobank shares. For remaining shares tendered, stock will be scaled down on a pro-rata basi, the statement said.

Final results are due today after acceptance forms have been verified, it added.

The share exchange and cash payment are due for completion by August 10.

Stocks rise in bargain hunting

Equities ended higher yesterday on bargain hunting and brighter sentiment in markets abroad, taking prices above 4,400 points for the first time in five sessions. The general index ended 1.70 percent higher at 4,402.42 points from 4,328.79 points in the previous session.

Turnover was 190.264 billion drachmas from 156.593 billion drachmas a day earlier. Changing hands were 28,699,565 stocks.

Sector indices ended as follows: Banks (+1.13 pct), Leasing (-0.06 pct), Insurance (+6.08 pct), Investment (-1.18 pct), Construction (+4.84 pct), Industrials (+2.31 pct), Miscellaneous (+2.97 pct) and Holding (+3.51 pct).

The parallel market index for smaller capitalisation stocks ended 4.31 percent higher. The FTSE/ASE 20 index for heavily traded stocks and blue chips rose 1.18 percent to finish at 2,507.52 points.

National Bank of Greece ended at 21,400 drachmas, Alpha Credit Bank at 21, 300, Bank of Piraeus at 8,650, Ergobank at 32,448, Titan Cement (commom) at 30,150, Hellenic Petroleum at 2,800 and Intracom (common) at 21,695 drachmas.

Kopelouzos Group in alliance with Italy's Enel

Italy's state Enel energy corporation announced yesterday that it had forged an alliance with the Kopelouzos Group in electricity production and engineering construction.

A Reuters report from Rome quoted Enel as saying that Enelpower, a subsidiary, would take a 50 percent stake in the consortium, to be named Enelco, with Prometheus Gas and Damco Energy of the Kopelouzos Group holding the remaining 50 percent of equity.

Titan, Lafarge to buy Egyptian cement maker

Titan Cement Company and Lafarge, a French building materials manufacturer, have signed an agreement to acquire jointly the Beni Suef Cement Company of Egypt.

The two companies will own 95 percent of the firm by early 2000 when a phased sale process is completed, at a cost of around 150 million US dollars. The remaining five percent of shares will be owned by the plant's workers.

Titan is a blue chip on the Athens bourse.

Greece on track for euro zone, analyst says

Bank of America in Athens said yesterday that Greece was on track for euro zone entry despite stubborn inflation.

Reuters quoted the bank as saying that the country's European Union partners may agree to a minor realignment of the drachma's central parity to the euro.

BoA's annual report that the realignment would depend on the strength of the dollar and the yen ahead of planned entry on January 1, 2001.

Gasoline taxes slashed in effort to curtail inflation

The government yesterday announced lower consumption taxes on gasoline as part of an ongoing effort to curb inflation in order to meet Maastricht criteria for Economic Monetary Union (EMU) entry.

National Economy Minister Yiannos Papantoniou said the reduced gas taxes, by five drachmas, along with a corresponding reduction in Value Added Tax (VAT) will amount to a 5.9-drachma per litre reduction, on average, at the pump.

The reduction was to take effect as of midnight yesterday and last until next June.

Indicative prices at petrol stations are 218.7 drachmas per litre for super and 202.7 drachmas for unleaded gasoline in Athens and Thessaloniki.

Development Minister Evangelos Venizelos described the reduction was part of a "gentlemens' agreement" with fuel wholesalers and retailers.

Britain's Prince Charles and sons in Greece

Britain's Prince Charles arrived in Athens yesterday with his two sons, William and Harry.

According to reports, Camilla Parker-Bowles, Charles' long-time companion, is already in Greece.

The royal family, along with Ms Parker-Bowles, are hosted aboard a luxury motorship, the 'Alexander', belonging to the Latsis family.

Black Sea cruises set to coincide with eclipse

Greece's largest cruise line, Royal Olympic Cruises, yesterday announced that it will schedule special cruises in the Black Sea next week to coincide with a total solar eclipse.

The firm said four of its vessels would carry passengers to the Black Sea, the area where the last total eclipse of the millennium on Aug. 11 will be seen at its most profound stage.

Scientists from NASA, including astronauts Scott Carpenter and Ronald Parise, who will be aboard one of the cruise ships, the "Olympic Countess", with special equipment in order to transmit clips of the eclipse at the Internet address: http://www.eclipse 99.nasa.gov

Greece and Bulgaria to fight outbreak of epizootic disease

Athens and Sofia are cooperating closely to curb an outbreak of the dangerous epizootic disease which broke out in SE Bulgaria late last month and has already caused hundreds of animals to be slaughtered.

The general directors of the Greek and Bulgarian veterinary services announced after an international meeting in the Black Sea port of Burgas yesterday that the two countries were formulating a joint strategy to combat the disease.

Epizootic disease broke out in SE Bulgaria and quickly spread to three departments of the country which border with Greece.

Approximately 536 sheep and other farm animals have already been destroyed in the three departments.

Both Greek and Bulgarian officials agreed at yesterday's meeting, which was convened to examine the situation, to set up a joint group of experts to coordinate efforts to curb the spread of the disease.

Athens responded immediately to a Bulgarian invitation to attend the meeting, despite the fact that only a few isolated cases of epizootic disease have been reported on the island of Rhodes.

Greek official Vassilis Stilas also expressed regret that Ankara had declined the invitation, saying the stance of Turkish veterinary officials was " incomprehensible", given the incidence of infectious animal diseases in Turkey and even though the authorities in the neighbouring country do not officially acknowledge it. His Bulgarian counterpart Ilian Batsavarov said he was extremely satisfied with the "excellent" cooperation between the Greek and Bulgarian services, not only in the present case but also in general.

To the "Daily Bulletin" subscribers

Dear friends,

As you are aware, technological developments in the mass media sector are rapid. Today, all the news services are offered online. The "electronic newspaper" supplements, and in many cases replaces, the printed newspaper. Contact via e-mail also affords the ability for direct communication.

These developments, as many others, have also influenced our own work here at Athens News Agency (ANA), which is adapting all its services to the new technology. In the framework of these changes, the "Daily Bulletin" will - as of Jan. 2, 2000 - be converted from a printed to an electronic medium for our subscribers.

With this change, our subscribers will: a) receive our news items online, at the moment the news is breaking. b) receive the next day's "Daily Bulletin" on their screens at midnight, with the ability to print it out if they wish or simply view on screen. c) receive the "Bulletin" either via the paid ANA services on the Internet, or via e-mail sent to a subscriber's e-mail address. d) also have the ability, for a small surcharge, to utilise the ANA's English-language data bank, which contains all the news items appearing in the "Daily Bulletin" since 1992.

We believe that these changes, which correspond with the new function of the international and national news agencies, will satisfy subscribers' needs for immediate and credible information. In order to subscribe to this service, you must have a PC and a modem, or an e-mail address.

All who wish to continue receiving our services must prepare for these changes which, as stated, will commence on Jan. 2, 2000.

Takis Mantis, the director of ANA's informatics and telecommunications department, is at your disposal for any technical information on tel: 64.00.560 and 64.00.038.

I sincerely hope all our subscribers will adapt to these necessary technological changes. Andreas Christodoulides ANA General Director Athens News Agency

WEATHER

FOREIGN EXCHANGE

Thursday's rates (buying)
U.S. dollar          300.318
Pound sterling       487.092
Japanese yen (100)   261.709
French franc          49.271
German mark          165.246
Italian lira (100)    16.691
Irish Punt           410.372
Belgian franc          8.012
Finnish mark          54.358
Dutch guilder        146.659
Danish kr.            43.438
Austrian sch.         23.488
Spanish peseta         1.942
Swedish kr.           36.898
Norwegian kr.         38.906
Swiss franc          201.892
Port. Escudo           1.612
Can. dollar          200.245
Aus. dollar          197.408
Cyprus pound         559.270
Euro                 324.830

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