In Brief
Five bidders short-listed for Aghios Cosmas sailing center Olympic Properties, the government-sponsored agency, has short-listed five of the 13 companies and consortiums that expressed interest in the lucrative concession of the Olympic sailing installation in Aghios Cosmas. They are S.Cape (J&P Avax, Vioter and Motodynamics), Intrakat, Seirios, Waterfront and the consortium of Athena, Semora and Prometheus Gas. The exclusion of Lamda Development, which has won the Floisvos Marina concession, came as somewhat of a surprise. The duration of the concession is expected to be 35-40 years and the winner will not be able to build a hotel or nightclub, but may use prefabricated constructions for exhibitions and other infrastructure supporting the marina, including 30 luxury bedrooms. Sources said the government is anxious to complete the tender before the summer. Support measures for poultry farmers and unemployed textile workers The government announced support measures yesterday for poultry farmers hit by the bird flu scare and for workers laid off in the declining textile sector of Naoussa, Macedonia. Poultry farmers are to be given a suspension from social security contributions until September and a 12 percent subsidy of labor costs until December. Naoussa workers laid off until the end of 2008 will be able to receive early pensions provided they are older than 50 and have worked at least 25 years. Bank social security The National Bank of Greece (NBG), the country’s largest, is set to apply today for inclusion of its personnel in the new single supplementary social insurance fund for all banks (ETAT), sources said. The move on the day the deadline expires is seen as facilitating the inclusion of NBG staff in the Social Security Foundation (IKA) for their main pension and as vital for the success of the new fund, with which employees do not agree. NBG has argued that it has been paying social insurance contributions twice as high as those of other banks and that this is against fair competition in the sector. Cypriot tourism Cyprus’s tourism revenue fell 9.4 percent year-on-year to 83.2 million pounds ($180.8 million) in the first quarter of 2006, authorities said yesterday. Over the same period tourism arrivals were 15.1 percent lower at 228,099 visitors. For March alone revenue from tourism fell 18.3 percent to 47.6 million pounds, the statistics department said. The Easter season fell in March last year, boosting arrivals to the Mediterranean island from its main market of Western Europe. This year it fell in April. (Reuters) Bank of Cyprus Fitch Ratings yesterday assigned the Bank of Cyprus’s euro commercial paper (ECP) program a short-term rating of F2. The ECP program has a size of 500 million euros. BOC is rated Issuer Default A- (A minus) with stable outlook, short-term F2 and individual C/D. Pliva German generic drug maker Stada is not weighing a bid for Croatian rival Pliva, industry sources told Reuters in Frankfurt.
