OTE: Plans reorganization and change of operating model.

Aiming at OTE to respond to the digital age the Group's management is planning a reorganization by changing the operating model and the first official update took place yesterday in annual general meeting of shareholders.

Οthe shareholders who attended the meeting also attended the intervention made by the investment fund, Amber Capital, proposing an executive of his choice for a member of the board of directors and explaining in detail his move.

More specifically, according to what the president and CEO of OTE, Michalis Tsamaz, said while speaking to the shareholders, in the current situation, "the biggest challenge of all is disruption, ie the sudden radical change reinforced by the new digital age. Especially in telecommunications, the changes it brings are exponential. For example, over the top players have radically changed both communication and content distribution to end users. Thanks to the development of technology, disruption comes from everywhere. It is the new norm and its intensity is unprecedented ".

Mr. Tsamaz added that despite the significant progress that OTE has made in the last decade, "estill has heavy structures, complex processes and high operating costs. We need to redesign our operating model. Reorganize to become more efficient and respond to customer needs faster, with honesty and simplicity. We need to be more flexible, outsource some activities and transfer others to separate units. We need to create new sources of revenue and accelerate our growth».

The head of OTE did not expand on this issue, however, information indicates that the planning, among other things, concerns the activities that are not purely telecommunication, which will be transferred to subsidiaries with the aim of greater flexibility in their operation. One of the possible interventions is the different organization of OTE technicians. The rationale is that the needs of households for technical support are increased and technicians need continuous training to respond to modern technologies e.g. of smarthome. OTE's goals are for this subsidiary that will bring together the technical departments to be able to serve consumers regardless of the network they use.

In his speech - unprecedented for Greek business - the CEO of Amber Capital, Giuseppe di Mino, as previously announced in the press, proposed the appointment of Alberto Horcajo, former CEO of Telefón B, as an independent member of the Board of Directors. This fund, as its head said, has invested a total of about 130 million euros in OTE in recent years, while today it has 2% of its total shares.

Giuseppe di Mino after saying that he is optimistic about the developments in the country, positive for the prospects of OTE and happy with his management explained that the fund is not satisfied with the way the corporate governance is exercised. He added that the Deutsche Telecom Although it controls 45% of OTE shares, it appoints all the members of its board of directors and for this reason it urged the minority shareholders to vote for an independent member of the Board. his own proposal. As he said, the value of OTE is undervalued and this is due to corporate governance, while he added that this is the reason why many international investors do not buy its share. «We believe " write down, "That DT maintaining this situation destroys the value of the company and we would like to apply in Greece the same rules it applies in Germany. "

His opinion was not voted on and the general assembly, in which the German company had a majority, elected him Eelco Block, as an independent non-executive member of the Board. - Vice-Chairman and as a member of the Audit Committee.

Then in a meeting the Board. decided in addition, with the aim of an effective and transparent process for the nomination of candidates for members of the Board of Directors, the establishment of a Committee for the Promotion of Nominations of Members of the Board of Directors consisting of Messrs. Eelco Block (Chairman - Independent Non-Executive Member of the Board.), K. Srinivasan Gopalan (Member - Non-Executive Member of the Board) and Mrs. Kyra Orth (Member - Non-executive member of the Board).

Also the Board decided to adopt further best practices of the Hellenic Corporate Governance Code (2013) such as the delegation of special responsibilities to the independent non-executive Vice-Chairman of the Board, the delegation of additional responsibilities to the Remuneration and Human Resources Committee and the executive of the Board of Directors and the Committees of the Board of Directors at least every two years by an independent company.

For the year 2018, OTE will distribute a dividend of 0,46 euros per share. Dividend cut-off date will be Thursday, July 4, 2019 and beneficiary identification date (record date) will be Friday, July 5, 2019. The dividend payment start date will be Wednesday, July 10, 2019.

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