In Brief
ADEX to launch new products in November Greece’s futures and options exchange (ADEX) will launch futures on individual stocks listed on the Athens bourse by early November, officials said yesterday. ADEX will launch stock futures on four, liquid Greek blue chip shares including OTE Telecom and National Bank, ADEX Marketing Manager Nick Porfyris said. The stock futures, quoted in euros, will have 100 shares as their trading unit. The contracts will allow for delivery of the underlying stock at expiration and will not be cash settled. The minimum price movement – tick – will be 0.01 euros with delivery based on T+3, the same settlement rules as in the cash market. The margin required to trade the new stock futures contracts will be at most 25 percent, Porfyris said. London’s International Financial Futures and Options Exchange (LIFFE) will also launch stock futures on OTE and National Bank on October 31 but these contracts will be cash settled and will not deliver shares upon expiration. Investment subsidies for female entrepreneurs Deputy Development Minister Alexandros Kalafatis yesterday signed the invitation for expression of interest for projects to be subsidized under the program Boosting Women’s Entrepreneurship in small and medium-size enterprises. Applicants must be aged between 18 and 55 and not have engaged in any business activity since Jan. 1, 2000. Subsidies will amount up to 50 percent of the proposed budget, which must not exceed 50 million drachmas in manufacturing and 30 million drachmas for other sectors, with a minimum of 10 million. Applications must be submitted through registered letter to EOMMEX until December 15, 2001. Further information may be obtained on the websites www.ypan.gr and www.eommex.gr. WTO conference. Greece is best placed to hold the next World Tourism Organization (WTO) conference in 2003 on account of the Olympic Games in Athens the following year and being one of the fastest growing markets in the tourism sector, Tourism Secretary General Dimitris Georgarakis said in his presentation of the Greek candidacy at the WTO conference in Seoul yesterday. He proposed the adoption by international organizations of the Cultural Route of Alexander the Great, which could become a pole of attraction for a large number of tourists. The 131 WTO members are to vote today in Osaka, Japan, on the host country of the 2003 conference. The other two candidates are China and Panama. PPC projects ready. Prime Minister Costas Simitis today is slated to inaugurate two projects of the Public Power Corporation (PPC) in Rodopi prefecture, Thrace. They are the Gratini Dam, which cost 10 billion drachmas and was constructed by the AEGEK-Terna-Michaniki consortium and the thermoelectric power station in Komotini, constructed by the AEGEK-Alstom-Ansaldo consortium at a cost of 110 billion drachmas, which will use natural gas and, alternatively, oil. The water from the dam will be used for cooling the power units of the 476.3 MW station and for irrigation. Ozilhan said the government’s primary budget surplus target for 2002, a key indicator in the IMF-led program, was far from realistic and should be cut.
