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On Wednesday, July 9th, 2003, Capital Link organized with great success at the Historic Hall of the Athens Exchange the Awards Ceremony of the Annual Greek Investor Relations Awards. The objective of the Greek IR Awards is to identify and reward those managers and listed companies who adopt and practice high standards of corporate governance, financial disclosure and investor relations. The nomination of listed companies for the various Awards is performed through polling among buy and sell side firms within the investment community in Greece and abroad.

The Annual IR Awards, a concept well established in most developed markets, were launched in Greece by Capital Link, a New York based international investor relations firm and an affiliate of Euromoney Institutional Investor. They were launched in cooperation with Institutional Investor, FTSE and PricewaterhouseCoopers, and with the support of the Athens Exchange. PricewaterhouseCoopers monitored and audited the process and the results of the IR Awards. ARTION Securities, one of the major securities firms in Greece, is the sponsor for this year.

More than 200 executives of listed companies, securities firms, Investment firms, mutual funds firms, banks, representatives of the financial press, executives from the most important market associations and other investors, attended the Awards ceremony. Dr. Panagiotis Alexakis, President of the Athens Exchange, presented the Grand IR Award. The other Awards were presented by the organizers and the sponsors, as well as by significant organisations in the Greek market such as the Capital Market Commission, the Greek Industries Association, the Association of Greek Banks, the Association of Institutional Investors, the Association of Listed Companies in the ATHEX, the Union of Listed Companies in the ATHEX, as well as the Hellenic Investor Relations Institute.

Dr. Alexakis, President of the Athens Exchange, opened the ceremony. He noted that corporate governance, corporate communication and investor relations constitute today key activities for listed companies. Normally, these activities should not depend on or be influenced by stock market trends but should be exercised with regularity and consistency thereby contributing to the proper operation of the stock market. Dr. Alexakis stressed that the Athens Exchange has made substantial efforts for the continuous upgrading of these activities by listed companies. He welcomed Capital Link's initiative concerning the introduction of the Annual Greek IR Awards concept and stressed that this concept will contribute to the improvement of investor relations by the Greek listed companies.

Within the framework of presenting each award, the following remarks were made:

Ms. Lisa Traeger, International Publisher of Institutional Investor Magazine noted the initiatives undertaken by the Athens Exchange as well as its listed companies to improve transparency, corporate communication, investor relations and corporate governance. She also noted that these activities are among the basic criteria international investors use in their investment decision making process.

Mr. Matthew Troulis, Partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers, remarked that the concept of the Annual Greek IR Awards will contribute to better communication between companies and investors and therefore to improved operation of the market. He mentioned PCW's involvement as auditor of the process and the results thereby contributing to the reliability of the Greek IR Awards concept.

Mr. Panos Drakos, President of the Association of Listed Companies on the Athens Exchange noted that communication through the Internet will soon become the only communication channel of listed companies towards their shareholders. Any other form of communication is destined to become obsolete as only the web provides the possibility of extensive and in-depth information coupled with interactive two-way communication. Mr. Drakos welcomed Capital Link's initiative to include the website category among the Annual IR awards.

Mr. John Kalogerakis, CEO of ARTION Securities, noted that his firm is one of the largest independent private securities firms. He supports the concept of the IR Awards, and is particularly happy to focus on medium and small cap companies, thereby providing to them proper recognition and encouragement of their efforts to increase their visibility in the investment community in Greece and abroad.

Ms. Angeliki Petroulaki, General Manager of the Listed Companies Association, stressed that individual or collective efforts, should be rewarded, in order to spur healthy competition. The IR Awards concept is a concept that exists and is applied in most developed markets and its introduction in Greece can contribute to improve the efforts of listed companies to communicate with the investment community.

Mr. Nicholas Demos, President of the H.I.R.I., congratulated Capital Link on its initiative. He also mentioned that it can help upgrade the significance of Investor Relations as a function and reinforce the role of the Investor Relations Officers within their companies.

The combination of Capital Link with Institutional Investor, FTSE, PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Athens Exchange lends particular validity to the concept of the Greek IR Awards and ensures their reliability and transparency.
Capital Link will repeat the IR Awards on an annual basis following the same procedure and criteria. Also, there is a special web page for the Greek IR Awards, at www.IRAwards.gr. This web page has the full file with all relevant material concerning the Greek IR Awards such as the Organizers, Sponsors, Winners, the process etc.