The company ELMEC SPORT S.Α. (''ELMEC'') announces that it signed a preliminary agreement with the Papaioannou family for the acquisition of the entirety of the shares of the companies of LAPIN GROUP, owned by the Papaioannou family. The total price of the acquisition amounts to ?84.4 million, of which ?44.4 million will be re-invested by the Papaioannou family by purchasing 8.88 million of ELMEC shares from the company HELLENIC DUTY FREE SHOPS S.A. (''HDFS'') at the price of euro 5.00 per share. The aforementioned transactions are pending approval of the Competition Committee, pursuant to the article 4b of the Law 707/1977, and will be completed as soon as they receive the respective approval. According to the signed preliminary agreement: ELMEC will acquire 100% of the shares of the company named "ST. PAPAIOANNOU SA" (LAPIN HOUSE) from Mr. S. Papaioannou and Mr. A. Papaioannou, for a price of euro 44.4 million. Subsequently, the company LAPIN will acquire from the Papaioannou family the entirety of the participations of its members in the companies of the LAPIN GROUP for a price of euro 40.0 million. Finally, Mr. S. Papaioannou and Mr. A. Papaioannou will purchase from HDFS 8,880,000 of Elmec shares (16.03% of the total share capital of Elmec) at the price of euro 5.0 per share (total price of euro 44.4 million). In any case, with the signing of the final agreements for the above transactions, the Company will proceed with the necessary announcements. The Chairman of the BoD of Elmec and VP of the Folli Follie Group, Mr. George Koutsolioutsos commented 'I am very happy to sign this agreement, since following the completion of the acquisition of the LAPIN group we will welcome another important member in our family. The LAPIN group is successfully active for several decades in the children wear and footwear market while it is also extremely important to note that Mr. Stavros Papaioannou and his family will actively participate in our Group contributing to the further growth of our activities.' Mr. Koutsolioutsos concluded 'The LAPIN group operates more than 140 stores in Greece, Cyprus, Turkey, Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the U.A.E. and Kuwait while the pro forma main financial figures of LAPIN group for 2007 are estimated to be: sales of euro 53.0 million, pretax profits of euro 10.0 million and EBITDA of euro 11.5 million.'