Athens News Agency: News in English, 00-11-09

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

CONTENTS

[01] Soccer-UEFA Cup-Iraklis-Result

[02] Soccer-UEFA Cup-PAOK-Win

[03] Greece-Italy-PMs-Meeting

[04] Soccer-UEFA Cup-OFI-Defeat

[05] Commercial Bank-car leasing

[06] Vernicos Yachts-hotel acquisition

[07] Vernicos Yachts-hotel acquisition

[08] Greek banks-report

[09] Greece - FYROM - Border - Security

[10] ASE-close

[11] NATO - Greece - Turkey - CBMs

[12] Greece-foreign exchange

[01] Soccer-UEFA Cup-Iraklis-Result

Iraklis Thessaloniki beat Kaiserslautern of Germany 3-2 away in a UEFA Cup second round, second leg soccer match on Thursday night but was knocked out of the competition 5-4 on aggregate.

Iraklis had lost 3-1 in the first leg in Thessaloniki.

[02] Soccer-UEFA Cup-PAOK-Win

PAOK Thessaloniki beat Udinese of Italy 3-0 at home in a EUFA Cup second round, second leg soccer match on Thursday night and qualified 3-1 on aggregate for the third round of the competition.

The score in full time was 1-0 and went into extra time.

Udinese had won 1-0 in the first leg at Friuli stadium two weeks ago.

[03] Greece-Italy-PMs-Meeting

ROME (ANA - L. Hatzikyriakos) - Prime Minister Costas Simitis and his Italian counterpart Giuliano Amato discussed Greek-Italian relations, issues to preoccupy the European Union summit in Nice, developments in the Balkans and Cyprus in talks held here on Thursday.

Speaking later, Amato said "we primarily discussed the prospects of the Intergovernmental Conference, bilateral relations, which are absolutely friendly, and we also discussed the Balkans issue."

Amato said there are positions which should converge even further expressing his conviction that this should take place at the European Council in Nice.

"Bilateral relations are absolutely friendly and without problems. We have the common problem which primarily concerns the struggle against illegal immigration, organised crime and smuggling. Joint and close cooperation has started some time ago and we discussed ways of strengthening it further in the future," he said.

Amato further said "we started discussing the Balkans following the new situation created in Serbia and the elections in Kosovo. Our views coincide absolutely and we shall continue the discussion."

On his part, Simitis said "we discussed Nice and we agree that at the Nice summit we should complete the discussion in relation to changes in the EU Treaty which is currently under discussion. However, the question is what will happen afterwards. Does everything being discussed provide answers? We also agree that there should be a continuation and whether it will provide the EU with new dynamism. Namely, to clarify certain issues which have been raised to date."

Simitis said Nice is a first necessary step but there should also be a second one, adding that it is appropriate that a general direction should be set in Nice for the second step.

[04] Soccer-UEFA Cup-OFI-Defeat

OFI Crete lost 4-1 away to Slavia Prague in a UEFA Cup second round, second leg soccer match on Thursday night and was knocked out of the tournement.

Slavia Prague qualififed for the third round of the competition 6-3 on aggregate.

OFI had drawn 2-2 with Slavia Prague in the first leg in Crete two weeks ago.

[05] Commercial Bank-car leasing

Commercial Bank expanded into the car leasing sector with the creation of a new company in cooperation with Pavlos Kontelis SA and Karenta SA, two car distributors in the country.

The new company is expected to begin operations early next year.

In the next few days Commercial Bank is expected to complete the transfer of a 6.7 percent equity stake to French bank Credit Agricole, envisaged in a strategic deal signed by the two banks earlier in the year. The deal covers cooperation in investment banking, bankassurance and money management.

[06] Vernicos Yachts-hotel acquisition

Vernicos Yachts, a listed sea-tourism company, announced the purchase of a hotel in Porto Heli Ermioni, in the Peloponese, for 604 million drachmas.

The purchase was made through a public tender by National Bank of Greece. The hotel has a capacity of 163 rooms, 310 beds, and is built on a site of 8,210 square metres.

[07] Vernicos Yachts-hotel acquisition

Vernicos Yachts, a listed sea-tourism company, announced the purchase of a hotel in Porto Heli Ermioni, in the Peloponese, for 604 million drachmas.

The purchase was made through a public tender by National Bank of Greece. The hotel has a capacity of 163 rooms, 310 beds, and is built on a site of 8,210 square metres.

[08] Greek banks-report

Six out of a total 15 Greek commercial banks combined held almost the total of private and corporate customers' savings in the country and accounted for the majority of loans in the domestic banking sector in 1999, a survey by Kantor research said on Thursday.

National Bank of Greece, Agricultural Bank, Commercial Bank, Alpha Bank, EFG Eurobank Ergasias and Piraeus Bank together accounted for 94 percent of total deposits last year, totalling 30.4 trillion drachmas, the survey said.

The same banks accounted for more than 90 percent of the banking sector's total assets and loans, at 46.1 billion drachmas and 18.3 trillion drachmas, respectively.

The survey said that consolidation in the Greek banking system has intensified over the last few years because of the privatisation of large state-owned banks and a number of merger and takeover deals.

The 20 foreign commercial banks operating in Greece lagged far behind their Greek counterparts, with the exception of Citibank, which ranked seventh, and Bank of Cyprus, which seeks a 5.0 percent market share, based on asset value.

[09] Greece - FYROM - Border - Security

SKOPJE (ANA M. Vihou) The defence ministry announced here that it will reduce the number of military guard posts on the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonias (FYROM) borders with both Greece and Bulgaria.

FYROM Defence Minister Ljube Paounovski noted, in announcing the decision, that no threat to the land-locked countrys security exists from the specific frontiers, sans incidents of occasional migrant smuggling and other small-scale smuggling. Mobile units are expected to continue patrolling the borders.

The defence ministry in Skopje is also expected to propose to Athens and Sofia that police detachments replace military troops in patrolling borders.

[10] ASE-close

Equity prices ended higher on Thursday, ending a five-day losing streak which pushed the general index 5.13 percent lower on the Athens Stock Exchange, in what traders described as a technical rebound.

Turnover, however, remained at very low levels, hitting a new record low for the year at 33.5 billion drachmas.

The general index ended 0.46 percent higher at 3,636.99 points. The FTSE/ASE 20 index for blue chip and heavy traded stocks ended 0.26 percent higher at 2,089.87 points, and the FTSE/ASE 40 index eased 0.18 percent to 438.57 points.

The parallel market index for smaller capitalisation stocks ended 0.06 percent higher at 397.43 points.

[11] NATO - Greece - Turkey - CBMs

The foreign ministry announced on Thursday that the first meeting between the Greek and Turkish ambassadors to NATO, provided for under an agreement between Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou and his Turkish counterpart Ismail Cem for deciding on confidence-building measures (CBMs), had taken place the previous day.

Foreign ministry spokesman Panos Beglitis said Greek Ambassador Vassilis Kaskarelis and Turkish counterpart Onur Oymen had spoken for 30 minutes during a meeting also attended by NATO Secretary-General George Robertson on Wednesday.

[12] Greece-foreign exchange

The euro's continued fall against the US dollar in international markets pushed the drachma lower against the US currency in the domestic foreign exchange market.

The Greek currency fell to 398.570 drachmas per dollar at Thursday's fixing, from 397.350 drachmas the previous day.

The drachma was stable against the euro currency at 340.070 drachmas per euro.

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