Greek Progress Fund held its Annual General Assembly of Shareholders

On 22/4/2002 Greek Progress Fund held its Annual General Assembly of Shareholders (AGA) on an agenda consisting of, inter alia, submission and approval of the annual financial statements accompanied with BoD’s report and Auditor’s report, appropriation of net profits and election of new Board members.
The new BoD comprises of: Mr. Alexandros Antonopoulos, Mr. Dimitrios Georgoutsos, Mr. Alexander Zagoreos, Mr. Antonios Bibas, Mr. Ioannis Sakellariadis, Mr. Miltiadis Siniosoglou-Tositsas and Mr. Aggelos Tsichritzis. The AGA decided on a € 0,12 dividend per share that represents a 4,2% yield on closing price of the Fund’s share on the ASE on the 19th of April. The ex-dividend date and the starting date for the payment of the dividend, will be announced through Greek daily political and economic press. During 2001, the NAV -adjusted for dividend - of the Fund dropped by 13,8% and compared favourably to the 23,5% drop of the ASE General Price Index. This performance distinguished Greek Progress Fund among the Greek listed close-end Funds. The company’s net assets on 31.12.2001 amounted to € 130m approx. and consisted of 84.4% shares, 2.4% fixed income securities, and the rest short-term deposits. The five largest equity investments of the company, as a percentage of NAV, were: Chipita 7.8%, Τitan (cr) 6.1%, Coca-Cola – 3E 5.8%, Germanos 5.3% and OTE 4.6%.
In 2001, the Fund posted profits (before taxes), in total, of € 7.28m, compared to € 26.22m in 2000. The unrealised capital loss for fiscal year 2001 on the company’s portfolio amounted to € 32.447m and was directly debited to the relevant special reserves account pursuant to Greek Law 1969/1991. The new balance of the aforementioned account, for the start of 2002, is € 16.33m. The Greek Progress Fund is one of the few Greek close-end Funds with substantial balances in the reserves of Law 1969/91 for use against future unrealised capital loss.