Latvia's mobile telecommunications operator, Tele2, announced that its number of clients has reached 1 million, a figure the company has been reluctant to promulgate in the past. Spokesman Krisjanis Liepins said that this number includes regular clients as well as users of the pre-paid calling cards Zelta Zivtina and Ura!.
Tele2 is a subsidiary of the Swedish group Tele2 AB and the second largest mobile services provider in Latvia by turnover. Other GSM operators, Latvijas Mobilais Telefons, had 893,519 clients in early July, and Bite Latvija, which began operating on the market last year, now has over 100,000 clients.
An extraordinary general meeting of shareholders of Rakvere Lihakombinaat (Rakvere Meat Processing Company) approved the takeover of 4.26 percent of Rakvere LK shares from minority shareholders by HK Ruokatalo Group Oyj at 45.4 kroons (2.9 euros) per share despite resistance from the Estonian investors' association, which wanted the buyout price increased by some 30 percent. The Finnish HK Ruokatalo Group already owns 95.74 percent of the shares in Rakvere LK. The company has at present about 320 minority shareholders who hold 1.6 million shares. The buyout will accordingly cost HK Ruokatalo more than 70 million kroons.
Estonia's A.Le Coq will offer to buy Lithuanian brewer Ragutis' outstanding shares at 10 litas (2.9 euros) per share. A.Le Coq, which eventually wants to acquire 100 percent of Ragutis, announced that it would make a voluntary tender offer for the remaining 116,859 shares. In April, Ragutis increased its share capital from 6.54 million litas to 33.72 million litas, most of which went to A.Le Coq to capitalize the Lithuanian brewery's debt to the Estonian company. The Kaunas-based brewery posted losses of 6.1 million litas last year, up 33.8 percent compared with the previous year, though revenues increased 17.9 percent to 61.1 million litas. A.Le Coq, which is owned by Finland's Olvi, holds a 94 percent stake in Ragutis.
