Company briefs - 2011-07-28

The state-owned Estonian State Forest Management Center (SFMC) earned a net profit of 14.4 million euros in the first half of this year, twice higher than the 7.1 million euros earned at the same time last year, Postimees Online reports. The center’s sales turnover grew by 29 percent to 64.3 million euros. SFMC sold 55.8 million euros’ worth of 1.2 million cubic meters of timber as forest material for an average price of 44.06 euros per cubic meter, which is 17 percent more than at the same time last year. It sold 0.15 million cubic meters as hacked timber for an average price of 36.18 euros per cubic meter, for a total of 5.5 million euros. The center plans to have 125 million euros of sales revenue and 27 million euros of profit this year.

The Latvian banking sector was profitable in June for a sixth month in a row, and the sector’s total profit for the first half of the year amounted to 68.6 million lats (98 million euros), said Financial and Capital Market Commission representative Anna Dravniece, reports Nozare.lv. After the first six months of 2010, the Latvian banking sector’s total losses stood at 249.5 million lats. In January-June 2011, 16 Latvian banks and five foreign banks’ branches, whose total share of the banking sector’s assets is 84.6 percent, posted 114.8 million lats in profit altogether. Dravniece explains that the banks’ profit was affected by the results of operating activities and quality of loan portfolio.