In Brief
ADEX to launch euro/dollar exchange rate options next month The Athens Derivatives Exchange (ADEX) plans to launch options contracts on the euro/dollar exchange rate next month, to complement currency futures that began trading in May, officials said yesterday. «We’re currently holding mock-trading sessions on the options. Most likely trade will begin in November,» ADEX Business Development Director Nikos Porfyris told Reuters. ADEX euro/dollar options contracts will be American type, meaning they can be exercised at any time up to expiry. The underlying instrument will be ADEX’s euro/dollar currency futures. ADEX hit its highest monthly volume ever recorded in September, trading a total of 1.299 million contracts in individual stock futures, stock index futures and options, currency futures, stock repos and reverse repos and stock options. (Reuters) PPC public subscription scheduled for October 22-24 Public subscriptions for the Public Power Corporation’s (PPC) offer of 15.7 percent of existing share capital will be carried out October 22-24, the coordinating banks said yesterday. PPC Managing Director Stergios Nezis is on a roadshow of presentations to institutional investors that will take him to London, New York, Boston, Zurich, Milan and Paris. PPC’s third flotation will leave the government in control of 51.5 percent. General Bank First Business Bank (FBB) said yesterday it will submit a bid for a controlling stake in General Bank by next Tuesday. FBB, 44 percent-owned by Greece’s Agricultural Bank, has seven branches and lends mainly to business customers in the shipping industry. «We are preparing a bid for General Bank’s tender, which expires October 21,» FBB Chief Executive Stathis Papageorgiou told Reuters. «We are considering the size of the funds we are prepared to commit.» (Reuters) DEPA The price offered by the sole bidder for 35 percent of the Public Gas Corporation (DEPA), Spain’s Gas Natural, seems to be seriously short of the 300 million euros the Finance Ministry had expected. Sources said the net sum offered is less than half that, after the deduction of amounts due to contractors for infrastructure work and third-party claims. The two sides are expected to meet next week. Fines The Development Ministry has fined four gasoline stations found to be selling adulterated fuel a total of 174,000 euros. It has also recommended that a greengrocer wholesale trader be fined 30,000 euros for selling oranges and melons at profit margins way above the normal 10 percent. Piraeus-Aegina Kyriakoulis Maritime will launch a hydrofoil service between Piraeus and Aegina next month, with up to 16 sailings a day. The parent company, Kyriakoulis Mediterranean Cruises, is currently considering orders of new vessels, targeting projected stronger demand in view of next year’s Olympic Games.
