VILNIUS - A leading daily paper reported last week that Snaige, the only refrigerator manufacturer in the Baltics, may soon undergo a change in ownership as its current majority stakeholders have commenced a search for a strategic investor. The paper, Verslo Zinios, wrote that the main shareholders of Snaige 's including Hermis Capital 's have approached several market participants with an offer to buy an approximate 60 percent stake in the refrigerator producer, which is located in the southern town of Alytus.
One of the buyers named was Gorenje, a Slovenian producer of popular household appliances, the paper reported.
Verslo Zinios also reported that the term for bids expires next Friday, May 26.
Company officials refused to comment.
Snaige has struggled since opening its new plant in Kaliningrad, Russia's exclave, several years ago.
In late April the company reported consolidated losses of 3.8 million litas (1.1 million euros) for the first three months of 2007, down from 844,400 litas in the black for the same period in 2006.
Management shrugged off the performance, saying it had been foreseen. "The earnings result of the company was affected by investments and growing costs of raw materials. As compared with last year, raw stuff and materials have risen approximately 11 percent this year," CEO Mindaugas Sestokas said in a statement.
At the same time consolidated sales soared 39.2 percent to 73.3 million litas during the first quarter thanks to strong performance in Russia and Ukraine, where the company launched a new marketing and advertisement campaign.
"Sales in Russia tripled in the first three months of 2007 compared with the year-earlier figure," Sestokas said.
For the full year 2006 Snaige reported 10.1 million litas in consolidated losses due to difficulties on the Russian market and bad debts.
Still, company workers are feeling fidgety. In March they threatened to go on strike if management did not increase wages by some 20 percent. But Sestokas said that wages were already on the rise.
"(Wages) rose by 12 percent last year and by another 12 percent in January this year," he said, adding that management intended to increase wages 10 percent annually in the next five years.
Wages at Snaige were among the highest in the manufacturing sector several years ago, though currently the average monthly gross pay is 1,273 litas (369 euros), several litas below the national average, the Baltic News Service reported.
In March the company announced plans to turn around its financials and return to the black by selling nearly a half-million refrigerators.
Sestokas was quoted as saying that the fastest sales were projected in Ukraine and Russia and that, according to projections, the unit sales of the company would grow by approximately 12 percent this year, allowing Snaige to regain positions lost on the Russian market.
Shareholders include Survesta, a subsidiary of Hermis Capital, an investment firm, which owns 22.78 percent, as well as clients of Hansabankas and SEB 's the two biggest banks in the Baltic states 's with 51.9 percent and 8.5 percent, respectively.
