Shareholders were made public

TALLINN - Investors and others can now get quick information on companies listed on the Tallinn Stock Exchange thanks to its new home page www.tse.ee.

In the past those interested in information on companies had to own at least one share and pay an additional 500 kroon ($30) fee to get a list of shareholders.

The data are renewed at the beginning of every working day by the Estonian Central Depository for Securities.

Gert Tiivas, chairman of the board at the Tallinn Stock Exchange, said that the access adds transparency and reliability to the securities market.

"In the near future, we intend to enhance easier information analysis on our home page through providing access for obtaining excerpts from shareholder lists at any selected period, and the possibility of making complex inquiries," he said.

Eva Palu, a spokesman at the Tallinn Stock Exchange, said that in the future it would be possible to detect questionable business practices, because the exchange is planning to open an insider register and expose holdings in related companies.

Analysts praised the availability of the shareholders' list on the exchange's Web site. Urmas Riiel, an analyst from Hansabank Markets, said that the stock exchange should have done it a long time ago.

"It was very troublesome before," said Veikko Maripuu, an analyst from Suprema.

In the past Suprema made at least one shareholder list request to the stock exchange a month. Maripuu said that he did not need the information about small shareholders, only that regarding about significant ownership changes, which is published on the stock exchange Web site since the beginning of last year.

"People can now see the portfolios of the management of different companies and the size of shareholders and make their analysis," said Kristel Kivinurm, head of sales and trading at Trigon Capital.