In Brief
Tellas captures 5.6 pct market share, targets 500,000 connections this year Telecoms provider Tellas announced yesterday that it has captured a 5.6 percent share of the domestic fixed-line market in terms of connections ahead of its target since it launched operations in early February this year. The company, a joint venture between Greece’s electricity utility Public Power Corporation and Italian telecoms operator Wind, is seen as the most serious rival to OTE Telecom in the fixed-line sector. Tellas said it had 348,000 connections by August 31 versus a goal of 300,000 for the year. Tellas Managing Director Pierluigi Quarenghi said the company has revised upward its connection target to 500,000 by the end of 2003. The company aims to capture 12 percent of the corporate fixed-line market and 17 percent of the residential segment by 2006. Management has said the company should achieve break-even at earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) level by 2005 and post a net profit by 2006. (Reuters) Aegean expands Italian routes through deal with Air One Private carrier Aegean Airlines announced yesterday it had signed a code-sharing and collaboration agreement with Italy’s second-largest carrier Air One, expanding its reach to Italian destinations. Aegean, which competes with state-owned Olympic Airways, said the deal will extend its flight network to five Italian cities. «Aegean passengers will be able to travel to and from Turin, Genoa, Milan, Venice and Palermo on flights of Air One,» the carrier said. The flights will start September 15. Aegean, the result of a merger with peer Cronus Airlines in 2001, saw passenger traffic on routes abroad – Rome, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Cologne, Dusseldorf – increase by 38 percent to 327,000 in the first half. Air One, based in Rome’s Fiumicino airport, flies a fleet of 30 Boeing 737 jets to 20 domestic destinations. It has code-sharing agreements with Lufthansa and Air Canada. (Reuters) Trade with Brazil A Brazilian business delegation is visiting the Thessaloniki International Fair for the first time, meeting with northern Greek businesspeople to find ways to expand trade between the two countries and set up joint ventures in the Balkans. A memorandum of understanding will be signed later this week. Bilateral trade is still very thin: In 2002, it amounted to just over $174.5 million, with Greek exports accounting for $147 million. Bond volume Volume in government debt traded on the HDAT electronic system eased to 54.2 billion euros in August from 60.3 billion in July, the Bank of Greece announced yesterday. Year-on-year, trading volume was down 5.2 percent with 10-year maturities making up 83 percent of total turnover. Greece’s benchmark 10-year paper was the most actively traded. «In line with the performance seen in other European markets, Greek government bonds fell between 23 and 141 basis points. The average 10-year yield spread over Bunds widened marginally to 14 basis points after a historic low of 13 basis points in July,» the central bank said. Liquidity of the 10-year benchmark, measured by the ratio of its monthly trading volume over the amount outstanding, fell to 205 percent from 229 percent in July. (Reuters)
