In Brief
OTE keeps raising stake in mobile arm Cosmote Telecoms provider OTE increased its stake in its mobile arm Cosmote to 66.54 percent yesterday, buying additional shares for the second day in a row. The country’s largest telecoms operator said it bought an additional 0.048 percent – 160,236 shares – of Cosmote on the Athens bourse. «The transaction was carried out at a price of 20 euros per share,» OTE said in a stock market filing, valuing the acquisition at 3.2 million euros ($3.88 million). On Monday, OTE paid 156.8 million euros at 20 euros per share for an additional 2.35 percent of Cosmote. Analysts said the share deal marked the first step in OTE’s buyout of Cosmote minorities, seen taking place this year and ahead of an expected sale of the government’s 38.6 percent stake in OTE in 2007. Separately, Cosmote’s CEO Evangelos Martigopoulos was named Manager of the Year 2005 by the Hellenic Management Association (EEDE). Receiving the award from Economy Minister Giorgos Alogoskoufis, Martigopoulos said Greek companies have nothing to fear from international competition and can represent Greece successfully abroad. (Reuters) More tax incentives for promotion of renewable energy sources Twenty percent of private expenses on the use and production of energy originating in renewable energy sources (RES) will be deducted from taxable income as of next year, the Development Ministry announced yesterday. Furthermore, the maximum expenditure exempted for installing a natural gas burner will rise from 500 to 700 euros. «We believe that these tax incentives provide an even greater and more important push for the further introduction of RES in the energy balance of the country, so that in 2010 we can reach the target of 20.1 percent of power production coming from RES, rising to 29 percent by 2020,» Minister Dimitris Sioufas stated. Tsakos Tsakos Energy Navigation Limited yesterday announced the delivery of the 2005-built, 53,000 dwt double-hull, medium-range product tanker, Artemis, the first of nine acquired from Western Petroleum SA earlier this year. The fleet consists of six 2005-built MR product tankers and three 2006-built long range Aframax product tankers, all with 1A ice-class designations. «We expect to take delivery of an additional 21 vessels over the next eight quarters bringing out total fleet to 51 vessels, including 24 ice-class ships. This will make TEN one of the largest independent ice-class operators in the world,» stated Nicholas P. Tsakos, CEO. Emporiki Citigroup raised its price target on shares of Greece’s Emporiki Bank to 33 from 32 euros, keeping its «hold-high risk» rating on the stock, it said in a research note yesterday. «With the Greek government having taken the decision to sell its Emporiki stake, we expect the company’s shares to show limited relative movement until the sale process moves closer toward conclusion,» Citigroup said. (Reuters) FYROM jobless The unemployment rate in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) reached 37.3 percent in 2005, according to data released by the country’s statistics agency. Local financial analysts consider this rate one of the highest in the continent, trailing only behind Kosovo.
