The 64th Ordinary General Meeting of Shareholders of OTE was held in Marousi, Athens, during which 75.9% of its Shareholders were present.
During the AGM, the agenda items were discussed and approved by the majority of Shareholders. Shareholders also approved the distribution of a dividend of €0.10 per share. The ex-dividend date will be Wednesday, June 29, 2016 and the dividend payment date will be Wednesday, July 6, 2016.
Addressing the shareholders, the Chairman and CEO of the OTE Group, Mr. Michael Tsamaz, assessed the successful 2015, which he described as “a normal year for the Group in an abnormal environment”. The OTE Head emphasized the Group’s investments for the development of New Generation Networks and infrastructure: “We are investing heavily to extend our networks’ coverage and increase internet speeds, both for fixed-line and mobile telephony. We are responsible for 60% of the total investments in the telecommunications market. We have not stopped or hesitated, not even during the crisis. Just in the past five years, our investments in Greece exceeded €2 bn. For the following four years, we are implementing a €1.3 bn investment program, creating the networks of the future, covering our customers’ needs. In the past few years, many ambitious plans have been announced for investments in New Generation Networks, however, the fact remains that the only one realizing significant investments is the OTE Group”.
Referring to the vision of the OTE Group with regards to developing New Generation Networks, the Chairman and CEO of the OTE Group noted: “We invest steadily, with business sense and as per our strategic plan with the aim to bring optic fibers to the home. We invest to offer life-changing, and at the same time affordable, new technologies”.
“Everything we do is for our customers; for the people that will use the new networks and speeds to change the world around us. And the end user is not interested in what infrastructure we use, but in how good the service is”, Tsamaz stressed, adding: “Our responsibility is for our networks to meet people’s rapidly increasing needs, at reasonable prices”.
Mr. Tsamaz also mentioned the targets of the Digital Agenda 2020. “We have a great responsibility. And we have goals to achieve: the EU targets for 2020”.
The Chairman and CEO of the OTE Group did not omit to welcome the appointment of the new Chairman of the National Telecommunications & Post Commission (EETT), noting: “He [the new NRA Chairman] has a difficult task ahead, because after the one-and-a-half-year the position was left unfilled many open issues have accumulated, turning into pressing ones. We hope for a good collaboration because, understandably, there are pending issues between us and the Regulatory Authority; [issues extending] from the new cost model to the approval of new bundles and plans we want to make available to our customers. The most important issue, however, remains the approval of our vectoring plan that has been delaying us from offering speeds up to 100 Μbps to our customers, as well as our competitors”.
