Athens News Agency: News in English, 00-04-20

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

CONTENTS

[01] Panathinaikos - Basketball - Euroleague

[02] Greece-Turkey-Business

[03] Shipping - Potamianos

[04] IOC - Samaranch - Criticism - Reaction

[05] Foreign Exchange Rates-Friday

[06] Greek-Turkish - Business - Forum

[07] Weather Forecast-Friday

[08] Lambrakis Press-Viohalco-printing materials

[09] Despec Hellas-new acquisition

[10] ASE-close

[01] Panathinaikos - Basketball - Euroleague

Panathinaikos Athens on Thursday night won the Euroleague basketball trophy for the second time in its history by beating Maccabi Tel Aviv 73-67 (36-36 at half-time) in a closely fought game.

Earlier, Turkey's Efes Pilsen prevailed over Spain's Barcelona in the final four's third place playoff with 75-69 (41-34).

[02] Greece-Turkey-Business

Deputy National Economy Minister Yiannis Zafiropoulos said on Thursday that boosting economic ties between Greece and Turkey would aid the normalisation of political relations between the two countries.

Zafiropoulos was speaking after a meeting with Turkish Deputy Economy Minister Kursat Tusmet, who is visiting Athens to attend a Greek-Turkish trade fair and business forum being held at the Peace and Friendship Stadium near the port of Piraeus.

The ministry quoted Tusmet as saying that trade and economic ties should influence politics, and not the reverse.

[03] Shipping - Potamianos

A trend of broad changes in passenger shipping, including the adoption of stricter regulations creates the need for closer cooperation with other European shipowning associations, a leading Greek shipowner said on Thursday.

"We are again in the midst of operational restructuring, partnerships and modernisation, and more general operational changes in passenger shipping. In view of the policy of other European countries, we need the assistance of the State in order to be able to compete on equal terms both at home and abroad," the President of the Greek Union of Passenger Shipowners, Andreas Potamianos, said at a conference

[04] IOC - Samaranch - Criticism - Reaction

Stinging criticism by IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch on Thursday aimed at organisers preparations for the 2004 Olympics raised eyebrows in Athens and generated quick responses from local officials.

The powerful IOC chief tersely said that the Athens 2004 summer games would be in ?danger? unless Greek organisers made ?drastic? changes by the end of the year. However, he later qualified his warning at a press conference in Lausanne, Switzerland, the IOCs headquarters, by saying: ?I cannot imagine the games will not be held in Athens? We hope after this warning all things will be in the right way.?

In Athens, the culture ministry, among others, released a press statement stressing that no concern was necessary while, however, hinting at delays in meeting certain 2004 deadlines.

[05] Foreign Exchange Rates-Friday

Following are foreign exchange rates for commercial banks released by the central bank for the next working day.

Friday's rates (buying)

Euro 332.687

U.S. dollar 351.267

[06] Greek-Turkish - Business - Forum

What emerged as a grassroots movement of ?seismic rapprochement? between Greece and Turkey late last summer before leading to a subsequent flurry of high-level contacts took on the form of an unprecedented trade exhibition of Turkish products in Athens on Thursday.

Roughly 90 Turkish exhibitors ?set up shop? for the four-day event in a hall of the aptly named Peace & Friendship indoor stadium straddling the coastline near the Greek capitals major port of Piraeus, while a forum for Greek-Turkish business cooperation will run concurrently with the exhibition.

On hand for the fairs inauguration was Turkish Industry and Commerce Minister Kenan Tanrikoglu, who was accompanied by Greece's ambassador to Ankara, Ioannis Korantis.

On his part, the Turkish minister expressed his satisfaction for what he called the continuous improvement in Greek-Turkish relations, adding that Ankara desires friendly relations with all its neighbours.

In a message read out at a brief inaugural ceremony, Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou stressed that Greek-Turkish business relations make efforts at rapprochement easier, while he also reiterated Athens interest in a continuous and constant improvement in bilateral relations.

Finally, Turkish ambassador to Athens Ali Tuygan said the forum and accompanying trade exhibition marks a significant step of progress.

?What weve accomplished in the last 10 months is, under the circumstances, encouraging. Its time for us to be optimistic and creative,? he added.

The trade fair includes a joint fashion show by designers Mihalis Aslanis from Greece and Turkey's Cemil Ipekci.

A similar trade fair of Greek products is scheduled to take place in Istanbul in April 2001.

[07] Weather Forecast-Friday

Changeable weather is forecast throughout the country on Friday, with cloud, some sunny spells, showers and storms.

[08] Lambrakis Press-Viohalco-printing materials

Lambrakis Press Organisation and Viohalco Group on Thursday announced plans to build a large printing materials factory in the Oinofita industrial zone.

The new unit is expected to have an annual production capacity of four million square metres of printing material products and hopes to supply newspapers and magazines in Greece and abroad.

Telesis Investments Bank is expected to have a small participation in the project.

[09] Despec Hellas-new acquisition

Despec Hellas on Thursday announced it had signed a pre-agreement for the purchase of a 51 percent equity stake in Intersonic ABEE - a sound and vision company - for an estimated 2.0 billion drachmas.

Completion of the purchase is expected in the next three to four months.

Foreign investors will hold 29 percent of Intersonic's equity capital and old shareholders will retain the remaining 20 percent after the acquisition.

Despec Hellas plans to promote Intersonic's products in markets where the group has a strong presence, such as Turkey, Romania, Cyprus and other developing countries.

Intersonic was founded 10 years agon. The company expects its sales to exceed 1.2 billion drachmas this year, from 500 million in 1999, and profits to total 150 million drachmas, from 22.5 million last year.

Intersonic plans to seek listing on the parallel market for smaller capitalisation stocks in the first quarter of 2001.

[10] ASE-close

Equity prices continued moving higher on Thursday, extending their previous day's sharp gains, as demand for blue chip stocks remained strong on the Athens Stock Exchange.

Analysts said the market's outlook has improved significantly following its sharp decline in the previous seven sessions. Shares in the Investment sector scored the biggest gains, while smaller capitalisation stocks ended lower on profit taking.

The general index ended 1.32 percent higher at 4,314.11 points, off the day's highs of 4,430.40 points. Turnover was a moderate 134 billion drachmas. The FTSE/ASE 20 index for blue chip and heavy traded stocks rose 1.25 percent to end at 2,457.91 points and the FTSE/ASE 40 index increased 1.14 percent to 573.66 points.

The parallel market index for smaller capitalisation stocks ended at 739.86 points, off 0.05 percent.

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