In Brief
Aegean Airlines raises 136 mln euros in IPO Privately held Greek carrier Aegean Airlines raised about 136 million euros from its initial public offering, which was priced at 7.60 euros a share, the managers of the sale said in a statement yesterday. The binding price range had been set at 6.50 euros to 7.80 euros a share. Aegean sold about 17.9 million new shares, of which about 599,000 shares were privately placed, the statement said. Aegean, the first airline to list on the Athens bourse, will began trading its stock on the exchange’s large-capitalization index on July 11. Aegean competes with state-carrier Olympic Airlines on domestic and international routes. Aegean’s major shareholders are the Vassilakis business group, the Laskaridis shipping family and Piraeus Bank. Aegean is renewing its fleet, having placed an $800 million order with Airbus for 19 A320 jets. The carrier took delivery of the first three aircraft in March. (Reuters) Turkey receives first Azeri Shakh Deniz gas ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkey received yesterday its first shipment of Azeri natural gas from the multibillion-dollar Shakh Deniz pipeline, an official at state-run pipeline group Botas told Reuters. The shipment of Azeri gas through the Shakh Deniz pipeline, operated jointly by BP and Statoil has been delayed several times due to technical issues. 2nd Istanbul airport. Germany’s Fraport and Turkey’s IC Holding have made a joint bid in a tender for Istanbul’s second airport and expect a decision next week, Fraport said yesterday. The tender is for the expansion and 20-year operating rights of Sabiha Gokcen Airport on Istanbul’s Asian side. The airport aims to boost passenger numbers to 13.5 million a year from around 3.5 million now. (Reuters) ‘Olive’ in Chinese After translation into the main European languages and Japanese, the book «The Olive Culture – Olive Oil» by Nikos and Maria Psilakis is now out in Chinese as well. After efforts of three years, the book is ready to fill a gap in literature in Chinese concerning olive and its oil. The 176-page publication offers insight into the culture of the olive tree, along with information on its cultivation and 130 recipes, mainly from the island of Crete. Venture Capital event The two-day 8th International Venture Capital Forum begins today at the Hotel Grande Bretagne in Athens, organized by the Hellenic Center for Investment (ELKE) and the New Economy Development Fund (TANEO). Participants will include 54 companies with business plans from Greece as well as Turkey, Bulgaria, Cyprus and Germany. Forthnet borrows Alternative telecoms provider Forthnet yesterday announced the signing of an eight-year, unsecured credit facility amounting up to 150 million euros. The purpose of the facility is to finance Forthnet’s future funding requirements. National Bank of Greece, Alpha Bank and Millennium Bank acted as joint lead arrangers.
