1st Nov 2006 10:04
Hellenic Telecomms Organization S A01 November 2006 HELLENIC TELECOMMUNICATIONS ORGANIZATION S.A. PRESS RELEASE OTE VOLUNTARY RETIREMENT PROGRAM SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETED Athens, October 20, 2006 - Hellenic Telecommunications Organization SA (ASE:HTO, NYSE: OTE), the Greek full-service telecommunications provider, todayannounced the successful completion of its Voluntary Retirement Program (VRP),effective October 14, 2006. According to Greek Law 3371/2005, • Eligible to participate in the VRP were all employees who had theright to apply for statutory retirement at any date up to December 31, 2012. • From a pool of 5,216 eligible employees, a total of 4,759, or over90%, elected to take early retirement and effectively left the company in a12-month period ended October 14, 2006. • An additional 803 applications were submitted and rejected. Of these,666 were submitted by employees who would have been eligible for retirement onlyif their time spent in military service were recognized by the pension fund aspensionable years of service. The OTE pension fund, TAP-OTE rejected theirrequest and this group of employees has appealed to court in order to reversethe fund's decision. The remaining applications were rejected by TAP-OTE becauseapplicants did not meet the necessary requirements. From the employees that left the company, 91.0% had more than 29 years ofservice with OTE and 94.3% of them were between 51 and 64 years old. Following the implementation of the Voluntary Retirement Plan, the averageemployee age fell from 48.6 to 45 years old, while the total numbers ofemployees will reach 11,827, including 1,237 new employees that will have beenhired by OTE prior to the end of 2006. Mr. Panagis Vourloumis, Chairman and CEO, commented: "With the completion of theVoluntary Retirement Plan, we have successfully carried out a crucial projectthat had been the center of OTE's management efforts since early 2005. We arepursuing our efforts to meet all other Business Plan targets, with increasedemphasis on the promotion of broadband services. Our aim is to rejuvenate andmodernize our company in order to reach the standards of our European peergroup." About OTEOTE Group is Greece's leading telecommunications organization and one of thepre-eminent players in South-eastern Europe, providing top-quality products andservices to its customers. Apart from serving as a full service telecommunications group in the Greektelecoms market, OTE Group has also expanded during the last decade itsgeographical footprint throughout South East Europe, acquiring stakes in theincumbent telecommunications companies of Romania, Serbia and Armenia, andestablishing mobile operations in Albania, Bulgaria, the Former YugoslavRepublic of Macedonia and Romania. At present, companies in which OTE Group hasan equity interest employ over 35,000 people in seven countries, and ourportfolio of solutions ranges from fixed and mobile telephony to Internetapplications, satellite, maritime communications and consultancy services.Listed on the Athens Stock Exchange, the company trades under the ticker HTO aswell as on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker OTE. In the U.S., OTE'sAmerican Depository Receipts (ADR's) represents 1/2 ordinary share.Additional Information is also available on http://www.ote.gr. Contacts:OTE: Dimitris Tzelepis - Head of Investor RelationsTel: +30 210 611 1574, Email: [email protected] Papagiannakopoulos-Senior Financial Analyst, Investor RelationsTel: +30 210 611 7593, Email: [email protected] Kozanoglou - Communications Officer, Investor RelationsTel: +30 210 611 1121, Email: [email protected] Diamanti - IR CoordinatorTel: +30 210 611 5070, Email: [email protected] Hadjigeorgiou - Financial AnalystTel: +30 210 611 1428, Email: [email protected] Forward-looking statementAny statements contained in this document that are not historical facts areforward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities LitigationReform Act of 1995. All forward-looking statements are subject to various risksand uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially fromexpectations. The factors that could affect the Company's future financialresults are discussed more fully in the Company's filings with the U.S.Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"), including the Company's AnnualReport on Form 20-F for 2005 filed with the SEC on June 29, 2006. OTE assumes noobligation to update information in this release. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
Ote Ads