In response to your letter , dated 30/1/2006, regarding an article published in a financial newspaper, we inform you the following:

During the preparation of the business trip that the President of the Board of Directors of the Piraeus Port Authority S.A. made in China, the CEO of COSCO HELLAS in Piraeus, expressed, on the basis of the occasional announcements for the privatisations of State owned companies, the interest of his Company to participate in a potential increase of the share capital of the P.P.A. During the three days stay of the President of the P.P.A. S.A in China and the discussions with the CEO and the executives of COSCO, whilst the collaboration of company COSCO both with P.P.A and P.P.Th was extensively discussed, NO discussion on the aforementioned subject took place. The Greek State is the basic shareholder of the Company with a percentage of 74,14% and is represented by the Minister of Economy and Finance, who is the sole responsible for the sale of shares of a company which is listed in the Stock Exchange and is controlled by the State.