Panafon Hellenic Telecom Co S.A.
22 February 2001





22 February 2001





                PANAFON ANNOUNCES FINAL APPROVAL TO ACQUIRE A

                      51% EQUITY STAKE IN IDEAL TELECOM





Panafon announces that is has agreed to acquire a 51% equity stake in the
Greek Company Ideal Telecom. The agreement with Ideal Telecom was finalised
after the approval from the relevant regulatory authorities and will
contribute significantly to the deployment of Panafon's Data Communications
strategy by utilising both company's expertise and synergies in the areas of
Virtual Private Networks, Voice over IP services and Satellite Communications.
Ideal Telecom will issue new share capital which will be covered by Panafon in
April 2001









                                   --Ends--







For Further Information Contact:





Dimitris Tsorbatzoglou
Panafon Head of Investor Relations  Tel: +301 6160019
[email protected], website www.panafon.gr/en/ir



Lulu Bridges,
Tavistock Communications, Tel:  +(44) 20 7600 2288



Nicolas Bornozis ,
Capital Link, Tel: + (212) 661 7566







Notes to Editors:



1.      Panafon's shares are quoted on the Athens Stock Exchange and its GDSs
are quoted on the London Stock Exchange.  The shares and GDS's began trading
on Monday 7 December 1998 in ASE and LSE respectively.



2.      Panafon has 512,500,000 shares in issue.



3.      Panafon is a shareholder in:


Panafon Emporiki (previously Panavox)  100.00 per cent
Panafon Services                       100.00 per cent
Panafon Multimedia                     100.00 per cent
Next Net                                26.11 per cent
Unifon                                  19.56 per cent
Mobitel                                 25.01 per cent
Citicom                                11.518 per cent
Ideal Telecom                           51.00 per cent (following 
                                       completion of all
                                       legal procedures)





4.      Panafon was awarded a license to operate a GSM network in Greece for a
period of 20 years in August 1992.  The network commenced operations on 1 July
1993.



5.      Panafon's shareholding structure is as follows:
Vodafone Group Plc                            55 per cent
France Telecom                                 3 per cent
Intracom S.A.                                  9.1 per cent
Free float                                    32.9 per cent







PANAFON listings:

Shares: Athens SE, Reuters PANr.AT. Bloomberg PANF GA. Nominal value GRD 100.
ISIN GRS 307 333 005. SEDOL 556 0349.



GDRs: LSE . Reuters PANq.L. Bloomberg PFH GR, PFHD LI. ISIN US 6981 132 060.
SEDOL 556 0361.

Rule 144A: Bloomberg Nasdaq 2250Q US. ISIN US 6981 131 070. SEDOL 230 2629



Indices: Greece ASE composite (ASE): 6.539%, Greece ASE industrial (ASEIND):
16.254%, FTSE/ASE 20: 2.827%, Bloomberg Europe (BE500): 0.059%, BE500 TELECOM
(BETELES): 0.459, DJ EUROPE STOXX (SXXP): 0.025%, DJ EUROPE ST TEL (SXKP):
0.240, FTSE EUROTOP 300 (E300): 0.016%, FTSE E300 TELECO (E3TELE): 0.135%, BBG
EUROPE TECHN (BETECH): 0.387.