It is announced that the Board of Directors of the Company in its meeting of November 9th, 2006 decided the distribution of an interim dividend of 0.20 Euro per share as advance payment for the year 2006 dividend. Shareholders entitled to the interim dividend are the owners of the shares of the Company at the closing of the trading day of the Athens Stock Exchange (A.S.E) of December 1st, 2006 according to the clearing of the Central Securities Depository (C.S.D) S.A. The shares of the Company will be trading ex-interim dividend as of December 4th, 2006. The payment of the interim dividend for the year 2006 to the shareholders will be effected according to one of the following options through the payee bank BANK OF PIRAEUS S.A on December 12th, 2006:
1. Through the Dematerialized Securities System (S.A.T) Operators (banks, brokerage - securities firms) according to the newly established payment procedure defined in article 329 of the A.S.E Regulation and in article 39 of the CSD Regulation
2. Shareholders who have revoked the dividend collection authorization to their S.A.T Operators will be attended to at any branch belonging to the BANK OF PIRAEUS S.A network
3. Shareholders not credited by their S.A.T Operators, for whatever reason, will be attended to at any branch belonging to the BANK OF PIRAEUS S.A network after December 18th, 2006.
For the cases 2 and 3 described above, shareholders can collect the interim dividend in person or through their legally authorized representative until June 30th, 2007 by presenting to the payee bank a copy of their S.A.T details and their Identification Card.
After June 30th, 2007 the collection of the interim dividend will be possible only from the Headquarters of the Company, Shareholders'' Department (12A Irodou Attikou str., 151 24 Maroussi tel. 210 8094 042).
Dividends which will not be collected within 5 years are written off in favor of the Hellenic State.