The Board of Directors of the Athens Exchange announces that it has taken a number of measures, which were approved on its session on 23.12.2002, and which aim, on the one hand, at the recovery of the trust to the stock market institution and, on the other hand, at strengthening the liquidity of the market.

The specific measures, which are announced today, are a follow up of the decisions that were taken on the session on 10.10.2002.

They regard all the listed companies and the Athens Exchange, in order to avoid taking the major agencies of the market by surprise, provides ample time for the companies to adjust to the new data.

The measures are as follows:

1. Transparency regarding the financial reports

As regards the audited financial reports, the Athens Exchange forwards a measure so that the real financial status of each company is clear and easily recognizable by the investing public.

In this frame, the Capital Market Commission is processing an article for the amendment of the PD 350/1985.

The stock market authorities will audit, case by case, and request from the Ministry of Development the release of reformed financial reports.

2. Tax audit of listed companies

The Athens Exchange, in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance secures that all the listed companies are tax audited regularly.

This already applies to almost all the listed companies, while, as regards the companies with non - audited fiscal years, the audit is at the final stage.

3. Strengthening of the market liquidity

a. Trading of securities

New rules regarding the trading of securities are determined, with the main objective to improve the market liquidity.

Regarding the measurement of liquidity, the major role is played by the spread between the offer and bid price of a security, as it condenses, in the best possible manner, the indications regarding the information that interests the investor when evaluating his placement regarding a security.

A. On the basis of the spread rule, the securities with an average daily spread lower than two per cent, which is the annual designated limit for the year 2003 will have a continuous five - hour trading (11a.m. - 4p.m.).

B. On the basis of the spread rule, the securities with an average daily spread higher than two per cent, will have a three - hour continuous trading, in two periods, from 11a.m. to 11:30a.m. and from 1:30p.m. to 4p.m.

Between these two periods, the system will accept bid and offer orders, so that the starting price per share is determined at the start of the second period (pre - opening procedure).

C. The securities that traded through a market maker that operates in accordance with the provisions of the current regulatory framework in effect, will have a five - hour continuous trading (11a.m. - 4p.m.), irrespective of the average daily spread.

D. As regards the securities that are or will be incorporated in the status "Under Supervision", they are traded in accordance with the provisions already in effect.

i. The securities that are subject to a three - hour continuous trading may transfer to the group of securities of five - hour continuous trading, if in the audit period, they present a daily spread lower than 80% of the annual determined limit in the three - hour continuous trading.

Alternatively, one security of this three - hour continuous trading, is automatically transferred to the group of five - hour continuous trading if it acquires a market maker.

CAUTION

The Athens Exchange, in order to avoid taking the interested parties by surprise with the implementation of the above measures, stresses that they will be put into effecton the basis of the behavior of the securities regarding their liquidity (as determined above in the form of the spread) in the period from 02.01.2003 up to 30.04.2003, as the measure will be put into effect after the above date.

After the above date, the evaluation will be carried out on the basis of data of the semesters that end on September 30 and March 31 of each year for the preceding period.

For the needs of the implementation of the said measures, the prices of the average daily spread of all the securities, as well as accumulatively for the months of the evaluation period will be released every month.

b. HIGH VELOCITY SECURITIES

Among the high turnover securities listed on the Athens Exchange, a group of securities presents a particularly high turnover (ratio of daily transactions to capitalization).

It has been decided that those shares will be incorporated to a separate group and that a "high velocity" index will be established.

The objective is the investing public to be in a position to recognize those shares the increased turnover of which is possibly due to short - term horizon and increased trading, so that it may use this information when making its choice.

The composition of the index will be decided and monitored on the same dates that apply for the trading of the securities.

Finally, the Athens Exchange will proceed to improvements to the electronic trading system (OASIS) in the following period, so that it provides the capability to examine sudden and unusually high fluctuations of a security.