BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union governments cannot set minimum prices on cigarettes, the bloc’s executive arm warned yesterday, saying it was taking legal action against Greece, France, Belgium, Ireland, Italy and Austria. Public authorities setting the minimum price on cigarettes distorted competition and impaired the right of the manufacturer or importer of cigarettes in the 25-nation EU to determine the selling price, the European Commission said. “Introducing minimum retail prices for cigarettes is against community law and mainly benefits manufacturers who are able to protect their profit margins,” Tax Commissioner Laszlo Kovacs said in a statement. The Commission said that if governments wanted to discourage smoking through high cigarette prices, they should raise excise taxes. “I strongly support member states in their efforts to implement new health policy. However, this must respect community law,” Kovacs said.

OTE telecom yesterday raised its stake in its mobile arm Cosmote to 66.49 percent on, acquiring an additional 2.35 percent on the Athens bourse. “The purchase was carried out at the price of 20 euros per share,” OTE said in a statement, valuing the transaction at 156.8 million euros ($190.1 million). OTE has repeatedly said it was keen on increasing its Cosmote stake, which analysts said would boost its profits. “We believe that a hypothetical scenario for the buyout of the 36 percent stake not held in Cosmote at 20 euros per share in cash would be earnings per share accretive for OTE by 12 to 13 percent,” National Securities wrote in a note. (Reuters)

Hellenic Petroleum (HELPE) is in preliminary talks with Hungary’s MOL and Austria’s OMV to bid jointly for Serbian oil products group NIS. “We would like to participate in this privatization and we are expecting the final decisions of the Serbian government,” HELPE sources told Kathimerini, adding that initial interest is in refining and marketing. Serbian sources, however, suggest that the Greek group expressed interest in the entire company. The tender for NIS is expected in the fall.

Turkish jewelry exports rose 16.5 percent year-on-year in the first quarter to $258.8 million, the Turkish Association of Jewelers (TAJ) said yesterday. Gold jewelry exports rose 5.0 percent to $220.3 million, according to data from the association obtained by Reuters. However, gold exports in terms of weight fell 19.8 percent to 19.6 tons in the same period as gold prices rose to new highs. (Reuters)

Turkish conglomerate Koc Holding reported a 17.6 percent year-on-year jump in its consolidated net profit to 597.6 million lira ($445.3 million) in 2005. The holding, which hopes to join the top 200 companies in the world, said in a statement sent to the Istanbul Stock Exchange over the weekend that the company’s net sale revenues rose 9.38 percent year-on-year to 24.35 billion lira. But the operating profits of the holding, whose interests range from banking to the automotive sector, fell 10.05 percent to 1.28 billion lira. (Reuters)