ECONOMY

In Brief

Aktor/ENKA consortium sign memorandum for Oman’s Blue City The consortium of Greek constructor Aktor and Turkey’s ENKA Insaat ve Sanayi AS signed yesterday with Oman’s Al Sawadi Investment and Tourism Co a $1.9 billion memorandum for the construction of the first phase of the «Blue City» project in Oman. Blue City will cost $20 billion and take 15 years to complete, in 10 phases. It will include houses, hotels, shops, public buildings and all modern city infrastructures. Slovenia’s Aiko wins FYROM hydroelectric plant project LJUBLJANA (SeeNews) – Slovenian construction company Riko said on Tuesday it had been chosen to build the St Petka hydroelectric plant in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) worth 41 million euros. The project will be financed through credits and is scheduled to be completed in three years, Matjaz Goltes, head of Riko’s project department, told SeeNews. In July, ESM, FYROM’s power generation and distribution monopoly, short-listed four bids for the construction of the St Petka plant on the Treska River, commonly referred to as Matka 2. The bidders were Chinese firms CWE and CMIC, a unit of Croatian Koncar and Slovenian Riko. The winner will be required to complete the 65-meter dam, as well as provide and install two generating units of 18 megawatts each, scheduled to generate an annual 65 million kWh. Fewer new cars Cars on Greek roads for the first time recorded a decline in 2005 compared with the year before, according to the National Statistics Service. In 2005, 355,859 new cars circulated against 374,056 cars in 2004. However, new motorcycles (of 50 cubic centimeters or more) rose by 13.2 percent, reaching 90,126 units against 79,635 units in 2004. Leading stockbrokers Ten stockbrokers dominate the Athens bourse, concentrating 81 percent of the market, and most of them belong to banks. Athens Stock Exchange records show EFG Eurobank Securities on top, followed by National Securities, P&K, Piraeus Sigma, Alpha Finance, Kappa, Investment Bank, Egnatia Finance, HSBC-Panteliakis and Emporiki Bank. Turkish bond The Turkish Treasury said in a statement yesterday it had mandated Citigroup and Deutsche Bank for a 30-year, dollar-denominated bond as part of its 2006 borrowing program. No further details were immediately available. The Treasury has not disclosed its 2006 borrowing plans. (Reuters) Bulgarian consumer loans Seven banks, including two Greek-owned, accounted for 80 percent of consumer loans in Bulgaria in January-September 2004 period, according to a note by the Commercial Affairs department of the Greek embassy in Sofia. These are DSK Bank, United Bulgarian Bank (a National Bank of Greece subsidiary), HVB, Biochim, Postbank (a Eurobank subsidiary), Raiffeisenbank and Hebros Bank. Consumer loans grew faster than corporate lending, but the use of credit cards remains limited although rising.

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