Announcement pertaining to the classification of listed companies in an "under supervision" status
On the occasion of the press releases and the announcements that were published last week, the ATHEX BoD considers worthwhile to announce the following:
As of March 2001, the financial criteria used in relation with the financial statements on 31.12.02 for the classification of a company into the category "under supervision", have been published. It is also known, that in the ATHEX BoD Decision No. 64 other criteria are provided relating to the appropriate dissemination of information to the investing public not only about the way capital raised by listed companies is used, but also about other obligations deriving from capital market legislation. The differences existing in both the financial and other criteria pertaining to the classification of companies in an "under supervision" status, make obvious that, in no case an ATHEX BoD decision for the classification of a company into this category should be considered as a fact which differentiates the solvency of these companies.
By the way Decision No.64 is stipulated, it is apparent that both the criteria themselves that were mentioned above and their evaluation, is done in order to present companies for which events arising from their published data need the particular attention of investors during the evaluation of their investment alternatives.
The ATHEX Board discussed about the particulars presented by the company THEMELIODOMI S.A in relation to the way the turnover of construction companies should be calculated and especially, if the turnover which is related to their participation in joint-ventures must be also calculated. The Decision No.64 of the ATHEX BoD regarding the conditions for the classification of listed companies in an "under supervision" status, makes no special distinction for construction companies as well as their projects related to their participation in joint-ventures, in accordance with the commonly accepted accounting principles.
In order to avoid any further doubts or complaints from the part of the interested parties and by acting according to upright corporate governance principles, the ATHEX Board decided to ask the opinion of an expert. The conclusions of his report will be taken into consideration in order to ascertain if at that particular point, Decision No. 64 of the ATHEX BoD needs to be amended or specified.
The ATHEX BoD would like to clarify that for the company OLYMPIC CATERING S.A., its previous reference in the rights'' share issue, does not constitute a prerequisite for the re-inclusion of the company''s shares in a "continuous trading" status. Also, the company by providing financial data for the first quarter in 2003, according to which fulfills the provisions stipulated in Decision No. 64, paragraph 1.4, will be given the chance by the ATHEX BoD to examine the possibility of being removed from the "under supervision" status.
As far as the companies, which fall under the provision of low production activities (1.2.c) are concerned, the ATHEX BoD decided to review the enactment of a special "call auction" category in order to classify companies which have these features to the said category.
Furthermore, as to the company TASOGLOU S.A.- DELONGHI, it is specified that its classification in the "under supervision" category has been decided based only on the criterion of the three negative fiscal periods (paragraph 1.2.a).
Finally, the ATHEX BoD bellies press releases published today regarding the de listing of shares with low market prices.