Athens News Agency: News in English, 00-10-17

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

CONTENTS

[01] Greek basketball teams win in Saporta Cup

[02] Greece -Turkey-NATO

[03] PM Simitis-Athens 2004 Olympiad

[04] Gov't spokesman - Ecumenical Patriarch - Simitis

[05] Dynamic Life-ASE listing

[06] Creta Farm-stock split

[07] Greece-bond auction

[08] Gov't spokesman - Balkan summit - FYROM

[09] ASE-close

[01] Greek basketball teams win in Saporta Cup

Aris Thessaloniki beat Besiktas of Turkey 101-87 in a match played for the Saporta Basketball Cup in Istanbul on Tuesday. The match was the first played by Aris in the Saporta Cup's group two.

In Athens, Marousi beat Valencia of Spain 82-75 in a match for the the same cup. The game was Marousi's first in the Saporta Cup's group one.

[02] Greece -Turkey-NATO

Greece on Tuesday accepted a NATO proposal to rescind its ultimatum issued last Thursday to the NATO command for a reinstatement of the agreed to planning for an alliance exercise based and managed in neighbouring Turkey.

Greek Defence Minister Akis Tsohatzopoulos, on Tuesday evening said that with negotiations, Greeece achieved a new framework of participation in the exercise.

It secured that with the responsibility of the National Commander of Greece, Greek aircraft will participate in the exercise, making full use of the initially agreed upon corridors and in addition of all other corridors, Tsohatzopoulos added.

The Greek ultimatum was due to expire on Tuesday evening as Greece last week temporarily ordered a squadron of its warplanes and troops participating in the NATO exercise to withdraw after Ankara demanded changes in pre-determined flight corridors that passed over two strategically placed Greek islands.

MORE

[03] PM Simitis-Athens 2004 Olympiad

Prime Minister Costas Simitis said on Tuesday he was confident that the ?Athens 2004? Olympic Games preparations would conclude on time, reiterating that organising the Olympic Games was a national issue concerning all Greeks, according to Deputy Press and Media Minister Telemahos Hytiris.

Simitis added that political exploitation of the issue should not be made, as is usually the case with the opposition parties.

Hytiris was speaking to the press after a joint meeting of ministers and the "Athens 2000" organising committee heads chaired by Simitis, which lasted over five hours.

It was the first such meeting following the recent Sydney Olympic

[04] Gov't spokesman - Ecumenical Patriarch - Simitis

Prime Minister Costas Simitis will receive Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomeos at his offices on October 24, government spokesman Dimitris Reppas announced on Tuesday.

After the meeting, there will be an official dinner in honour of the Patriarch.

Asked if Archbishop Christodoulos of Athens and All Greece, the Autocephalus Greek Orthodox Church's highest prelate, would also attend the dinner, the spokesman said he didn't know.

[05] Dynamic Life-ASE listing

Dynamic Life, Greece's largest gyms chain based in Thessaloniki, will seek listing on the parallel market for smaller capitalisation stocks of the Athens Stock Exchange.

The company plans to file an application with the market's authorities in the next few days.

Egnatia Securities will act as underwriter to the listing, while Dorros Securities will act as consultant. The company is expected to announced the name of its strategic investor prior to its listing application.

Dynamic Life operates 90 gyms around the country, with a workforce of 2,200.

The company expects its turnover to exceed 850 million drachmas this year to total 2.562 billion drachmas in 2001. Next year's profits are projected at more than one billion drachmas.

[06] Creta Farm-stock split

Creta Farm's new shares, a result of a stock split decision taken by a general shareholders' meeting, will start trading on the Athens bourse at a new price from Thursday 19, October.

The stock split plan envisages an one-to-one rights' issue through the issuance of 6,700,000 new common shares at a nominal price of 250 drachmas each.

Creta Farm expects that a cut in its nominal share price by half would boost its turnover in the market.

[07] Greece-bond auction

Greek bond yields fell substantially during a regular auction of state securities by the Public Debt Management Organisation on Tuesday.

The average weighed yield of a three-year bond, worth 220 billion drachmas and paying an annual coupon of 5.90 percent, fell to 5.64 percent from 6.12 percent in the previous auction of same securities. The issue was a re-opening of a bond dated February 11, 2003.

Bids submitted totalled 1.096 trillion drachmas, almost five times more than the asked sum. The average weighed price of the issue was 100.499 points.

[08] Gov't spokesman - Balkan summit - FYROM

A summit meeting of southeast European states will take place in Skopje on October 25, government spokesman Dimitris Reppas said on Tuesday.

The spokesman said that the meeting in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia was arranged after a proposal by Prime Minister Costas Simitis.

[09] ASE-close

Equity prices dramatically changed direction after Monday's spectacular rebound to end sharply lower on Tuesday, undermined by lack of buying interest and a record-low liquidity on the Athens Stock Exchange.

Traders said news of positive developments in the Middle East crisis came too late to improve sentiment in the market.

The general index ended 1.76 percent lower at 3,724.26 points, off the day's lows of 3,659.67 points, with turnover a low 46.52 billion drachmas.

The FTSE/ASE 20 index for blue chip and heavy traded stocks ended at 2,128.07 points, off 1.47 percent, and the FTSE/ASE 40 index fell 1.96 percent to 458.60 points.

The parallel market index for smaller capitalisation stocks ended 3.03 percent lower at 467.77 points.

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