In Brief
Expressions of interest invited for Neo Faliron marina The Tourism Development Company (ETA) yesterday invited expressions of interest until April 17 in the long-term lease of the marina at Neo Faliron, following instructions by Tourism Development Minister Fanni Palli-Petralia. The development plan provides for increasing the marina’s capacity, while the duration of the lease will stretch to 35 years. The process could take up to six months, as a set of studies will also be required during the second phase of the tender. ETA had announced the utilization of the facility two years ago but this had stalled until Palli-Petralia intervened. Alwaleed, Turkcell to bid for Saudi mobile license RIYADH – Kingdom Holding Co, owned by billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, has formed a consortium with Turkish mobile operator Turkcell to bid for a Saudi mobile phone license, a Kingdom Holding official said. Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, is selling its third mobile-phone license and plans to end the fixed-line monopoly of Saudi Telecom Co this year. Turkcell said last month it had decided to bid for a Saudi mobile license, but gave no details. Kingdom Holding has teamed up with Turkcell in the bid, Talal al-Mayman, a spokesman for Kingdom Holding, told reporters in Riyadh late on Sunday. (Reuters) Aspis Cyprus bid cleared The Cyprus Stock Exchange has cleared a bid by Greek insurer Aspis Pronia and affiliate Commercial Value to make a public offer for a stake in Cyprus’s Universal Bank, the bourse said yesterday. Aspis and Commercial are offering 1.1 Cyprus pounds per share for at least 20 percent and up to 50 percent plus one share in Universal. Another bid is pending for Universal from Schoeller Holdings and Path Holdings Ltd. (Reuters) Greek 2040 bond Orders for Greece’s planned benchmark euro bond due September 2040 approached -5.5 billion ($7.10 billion) by 11.00 GMT yesterday, a banker familiar with the matter said. Price talk for the deal, which is slated to total -3-5 billion, remains at 37 to 39 basis points over the 4 percent January 2037 Bund, the banker said, with the bond expected to launch and price tomorrow. Order books for the deal, lead managed by Credit Suisse, HSBC, Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley and National Bank of Greece, opened yesterday morning. (Reuters) Turkish inflation Turkey’s Central Bank Governor Durmus Yilmaz said yesterday that tight monetary policy and demand conditions will continue to help hold down inflation in the first quarter of 2007. The central bank saw a 70 percent chance that consumer price inflation will end 2007 at 3.6 to 6.6 percent and end 2008 at 1.6 to 5.2 percent if central bank overnight rates stay stable in the first three quarters, Yilmaz told a news conference. (Reuters) Producer prices Greek producer price inflation decelerated to a 2.2 percent annual pace in December from 2.6 percent in the previous month, data released by the country’s statistics service (NSS) showed. (Reuters)
