In Brief
Government picks new head for National Bank The government will propose banker Apostolos Tamvakakis as the new chief executive at the country’s largest lender, National Bank, at a board meeting on December 2, banking officials told Reuters yesterday. «The proposal has been made and it was accepted,» said one official close to the process who declined to be named. Tamvakakis, who was an executive with National Bank of Greece in the past, is in charge of strategy with the Latsis group and was formerly CEO at real estate firm Lamda Development. The government also picked economist Vassilis Rappanos, former chair of a council of economic advisers under a Socialist government, as National Bank’s new board chairman, the official added. Tamvakakis will replace CEO Takis Arapoglou, who was appointed to the post by the previous conservative government. Under Arapoglou, National Bank of Greece expanded into Turkey through the acquisition of Finansbank. (Reuters) Fish sales and improved prices lift Nireus profit Nireus Aquaculture, Greece’s largest fish-farming company, reported a 63 percent rise in nine-month profits after tax to 2.32 million euros, due to an increase in fish sales, higher bream prices and a cost reduction program, it said yesterday. Fish sales rose almost 10 percent to 90.2 million euros in the nine-month period and cost savings in selling, personnel and administrative expenses helped support bottom-line growth. «Lower expenditures and resilient margins have been achieved through strong cash generation and significant cost savings,» Aristides Belles, chairman of Nireus Aquaculture, said in a statement. Looking ahead, Belles said market conditions are expected to further improve next year. «The price of sea bream has recovered to satisfactory levels… we anticipate a full recovery in 2010,» the company’s chairman said. Shares in Nireus Aquaculture rose 5 percent to 0.63 euros on the Athens bourse yesterday, before news of the earnings figures was made public, versus a 1.44 percent advance on the broader market. Cypriot economy Cyprus’s economy will shrink by more than 1 percent this year and its budget deficit will breach eurozone thresholds in 2010 and 2011 unless urgent action is taken, Central Bank Governor Athanasios Orphanides said yesterday. Orphanides, a member of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank, said the island’s central bank expected gross domestic product to be negative this year, a reflection of deep-rooted structural problems in the Cypriot economy. (Reuters) Intralot decline Intralot, the world’s second-largest lottery systems provider, posted a 25 percent fall in nine-month net profits, hit by weaker Turkish operations and foreign exchange losses. «The top line was affected by a continuing sluggish global economy, foreign exchange impact, which is less severe than in the previous quarters, and the outset of the new Turkish betting contract in March this year,» Constantinos Antonopoulos, chief executive of the Greek company, said yesterday. (Reuters) Bulgaria gas link Bulgaria plans to link its gas network with that of neighboring Serbia as part of plans to diversify natural gas routes, the Economy and Energy Ministry said yesterday. (Reuters)
