In Brief
PPC-RWE cooperation talks at an early stage Cooperation talks between Public Power Corporation (PPC) and RWE AG, Germany’s second-largest utility, have a limited scope and are at an early stage, the Greek company said. «Talks with RWE concern only specific projects,» PPC said in a filing to the stock exchange yesterday. «Confidential talks to sign a memorandum of cooperation are at an early stage, despite the progress that has been made,» the statement said. PPC said on Thursday it had a cooperation agreement with RWE and declined to give further details. Under the plan, RWE would get 51 percent and manage all new units PPC plans to build in the future, a financial website had reported. (Bloomberg) Industrial production index heads north Greece’s industrial production index posted a 2.3 percent rise in September compared with the same month last year, after a corresponding 3.2 percent reduction in the previous year, the National Statistics Service announced yesterday. In the first nine months of the current year the index has grown by 2.1 percent year-on-year, from a 0.4 percent increase the previous year. The September rise is attributed to output growth in the sectors of manufacturing, electricity – natural gas – water and mining. OPAP stake Capital Research and Management Company, the Pacific Life fund management subsidiary which manages US pension capital, controls 9.2172 percent of the shares of Greek gaming company OPAP, it announced. However OPAP officials stated yesterday that Capital Research and Fidelity (officially owner of 5 percent of OPAP) may control directly or indirectly up to 17 percent of the Athens-listed firm. But they ruled out the possibility of Capital being interested in gaining strategic control of OPAP. Alapis shares The chairman of pharmaceutical firm Alapis SA was selling stock at 2.42 euros per share, bookrunners Deutsche Bank and Sal Oppenheim said yesterday. Chairman Lavrentios Lavrentiadis, who revealed on Monday he had sold 52.7 million shares in the company, was reducing his stake again. (Reuters) Carrefour’s Migros bid France’s Carrefour has made an initial bid for Turkish supermarket chain Migros, sources familiar with developments said yesterday, while Croatian company Agrikor also said it was in the running. Meanwhile, Turkish food group Ulker said it wanted to buy a 10 percent stake in Migros in a consortium bid. (Reuters) Serb tender Serbia launched a tender for the sale of the state’s 53.3 percent stake in the country’s biggest bridge builder Mostogradnja yesterday, seeking a minimum price of 5.6 million euros. The tender, published in international and Serb newspapers, specified bidders had to offer a price equivalent to 100 percent of the company, as the state would invite small shareholders to sell their shares at the same time. (Reuters)
