In Brief

Court hears Intracom’s suit against Kathimerini The Piraeus First Instance Court is expected to rule in the next few days on a 6.6-million-euro suit filed against Kathimerini by telecoms equipment manufacturer Intracom, alleging a campaign to cause financial loss to the company and its president, Socrates Kokkalis. During the hearing yesterday, Intracom’s chief financial officer Dimitris Klonis said the paper had published a total of 153 false and slanderous reports regarding the company’s activities. Kathimerini Editor Antonis Karakousis and reporter Aristea Bougatsou insisted all the reports on Intracom and Kokkalis were true and written on the basis of information originating in banks and other financial sources. Minister accepts OLP resignations Merchant Marine Minister Giorgos Anomeritis yesterday accepted the resignations of the Piraeus Port Authority’s (OLP) chairman, Constantinos Maniatopoulos, and managing director, Harilaos Psaraftis, saying they were due to friction and problems between the two men. The minister said the development would not affect OLP’s planned listing on the Athens bourse and dismissed allegations of a «bubble» made by an opposition deputy Miltiadis Varvitsiotis earlier this week. «The method is familiar. One deputy tables a question (in Parliament), which is reiterated until it becomes a big issue,» he said. Athens-Nicosia bourses The Athens Stock Exchange (ASE), the Athens Derivatives Exchange (ADEX) and the Cyprus Stock Exchange signed a Memorandum of Cooperation in Nicosia on Tuesday on promoting the exchange of know-how, the holding of training seminars for staff and the investing public, and harmonizing the terms for listing in both countries. ASE Chairman Panayiotis Alexakis spoke on the subject of «Trends and Operation of European Exchanges» at an event organized by the Bank of Cyprus. Group 4 – Wackenhut Danish security services Group 4 Falck wants to buy 95 percent of the Greek affiliate of US peer Wackenhut, Reuters reported from Copenhagen yesterday. Group 4 said last week it intended to buy out the entire Wackenhut firm for $573 million, including 42.75 percent of the Greek branch. «Now Group 4 is seeking to buy an additional 52.25 percent of Greek Wackenhut,» said a press release. Greek Wackenhut employs more than 2,000 personnel and had a turnover of $42 million in 2001. Car insurance Deputy Development Minister Christos Theodorou said yesterday that 13 of the 49 car insurance companies in serious financial difficulties have been found in violation of requirements for the maintenance of reserves and warned them of possible closures. One foreign company, Sovag, has been ordered not to issue new contracts and renew old ones, as it did not possess a license for a branch in Greece, while Thessaloniki-based company Express has had its license revoked again pending the adjudication of a case at the Council of State. Maroulis said that last month’s slight drop in expectations among businesses as reported by the Foundation for Economic and Industrial Research (IOBE) yesterday, was an understandable reaction to the current global uncertainties, but is not expected to affect their investment plans.