In Brief
Emirates firm buys 21 pct of Forthnet Forthnet, Greece’s second-biggest Internet company, said three of its main shareholders agreed to sell a 21 percent stake in the company for 93.8 million euros. Cycladic Master Fund, Novator Equities Ltd and founding shareholder Idrima Technologias & Erevnas, or ITE, sold 8.15 million shares at 11.50 euros apiece to Forgendo Ltd, according to a filing today with the Athens Exchange. Emirates International Telecommunications Ltd is the guarantor of Forgendo, the statement said. (Bloomberg) Motor Oil hires Technip to build new refinery Motor Oil, Greece’s second-largest refiner, hired Technip Italy, a unit of Paris-based Technip, to build a second crude oil distillation processor at its Aghioi Theodoroi refinery. The plant, to be completed in early 2010, will cost 180 million euros, Motor Oil said in a stock exchange filing. That’s less than the 200 million euros the company initially estimated last year. The project will bring Motor Oil’s annual production capacity to more than 9 million metric tons, the filing said. (Bloomberg) EFG acquisition EFG International, the Swiss bank for the wealthy whose biggest shareholder is Greece’s Latsis family, said it completed the purchase of On Finance of Lugano, Switzerland. On Finance, founded in 2000, has client assets under management of 750 million Swiss francs, the bank said in an e-mailed statement from Zurich. (Bloomberg) Bulk ship order STX Shipbuilding Co, the first South Korean company to build a yard in China, said it received a contract to build two bulk carriers for 204 billion won ($215 million) from Greece. The 181,000-ton vessels, the biggest of their type, will be delivered by June 30, 2010, the Jinhae, South Korea-based company said in a regulatory filing today, without naming the buyer. (Bloomberg) Producer prices up Greek producer price inflation accelerated to an annual 8.3 percent pace in December, mainly due to high energy prices, data from the National Statistics Service showed yesterday. «The index is expected to remain high in the first quarter of 2008 and then ease due to an expected deceleration in petrol prices and intermediate goods,» said National Bank’s Nikos Magginas. (Reuters) Strait closed Turkey has closed the Bosporus Strait to transit traffic of tankers longer than 200 meters due to strong currents and stormy conditions, an official from the Turkish coast guard said yesterday. The Bosporus is one of the two Turkish straits that connect the oil-shipping ports on the Black Sea with the Mediterranean. The official said the restriction on large tankers would be lifted when weather conditions improve. (Reuters) Turkish inflation Turkey’s central bank said yesterday inflation was expected to keep falling despite risks from food and energy prices. The bank also said it was important to maintain fiscal discipline when global risk appetite is lessening. (Reuters)
