In Brief
Bourse company leads in profit fall Hellenic Exchanges Holding Company yesterday reported a sharp fall in consolidated first-half profits before taxes and minorities to 4.9 billion drachmas from 28.1 billion last year. Turnover was 12.6 billion against 32.3 billion drachmas in the first half of 2000. The company said in a statement that the development was due to the unfavorable domestic and international stock market climate, noting that the total value of transactions and capitalization of Greek listed companies fell in the first half by 66 and 34 percent respectively in relation to last year. Athens 2004 Olympic logo products Athens 2004 organizers yesterday announced they had made deals with 16 Greek companies to manufacture products with the logo for the Olympic Games. Organizers plan to make 35 such deals to sell products ranging from sportswear, badges, and household goods. The remaining 19 bids are expected to be opened within a week. Athens organizers hope to get revenues of 10.3 billion drachmas from merchandise sales. (AP) Intrasoft. Software provider Intrasoft yesterday reported a 9.5-percent increase in first-half group pretax profit after minorities to 3.81 billion drachmas. Consolidated first-half turnover grew 27.8 percent to 17.94 billion drachmas from 14.03 billion in 2000. (Reuters) Forthnet. Internet service provider Forthnet reported a 20-percent rise in pretax profit to 268.2 million drachmas. Sales rose 31 percent to 3.04 billion drachmas. The company reported first-half results at a group level for the first time. Consolidated pretax earnings after minorities were 252.8 million drachmas on sales of 3.43 billion drachmas. (Reuters) PC Systems. PC Systems IT group reported a 61-percent growth in H1 profits before minorities to 518 million drachmas from a turnover of 8.9 billion drachmas. The group expects 2001 turnover to exceed 20 billion and pretax profit to come to over 1 billion drachmas. ANEK loss. ANEK Lines ferry operators yesterday reported it had restricted consolidated H1 losses to 2 billion drachmas from 2.9 billion last year. Turnover grew 25.7 percent to 21 billion drachmas. EBITDA rose 154 percent to 2.9 billion. Bulgarian deficit. Bulgaria expects a budget deficit of between 1 and 2 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) next year depending on revenue and spending policies to be approved by the IMF, a deputy finance minister said yesterday. We are working on several budget frame versions which involve a budget deficit of 1, 1.5 and 2 percent, Kiril Ananiev told a news conference. Next year’s budget is expected to be finalized with an IMF mission, due in Sofia from September 11. The IMF said on Thursday it was concerned that plans to cut taxes and boost wages and social benefits would open gaps in next year’s budget. (Reuters) BP is leading the sponsor group conducting the detailed engineering study and negotiates with potential partners in the whole project, whose price tag has been revised to $2.8-2.9 billion after basic engineering work completed in May.
