Saku Olletehas (Saku Brewery) said it was introducing suitcase-style packs of 24 0.5-liter cans of beer in order to prepare for the anticipated alcohol rally after EU accession. The 24-can case will cost from 220 kroons (14 euros) to 250 kroons depending on the outlet and terms of offer.
"Since the half-liter can is a rising trend, the new suitcases are convenient for both Estonian consumers as well as tourists, for whom we have made the package as comfortable to carry as possible," brewery spokesperson Kristina Seimann said.
Lietuvos Avialinijos (Lithuanian Airlines, or LAL) reported earnings of 297,000 litas (86,087 euros) for 2003, up from 39,924 litas recorded in 2002. LAL, which had scheduled its net earnings at 2.2 million litas for 2003, earned 6.1 million litas. However, the profit figure was reduced by a depreciation of long-term assets, with the company slashing the value of its Boeing 737-200 planes. Operating revenues totaled 202 million litas, a decline of 7.8 percent year-on-year.
Shareholders of Zemaitijos Pienas, Lithuania's third-largest dairy group, have approved the splitting up of the company. Zemaitijos Pieno Investicija, a newly set-up company, will be separated from the parent company, which is based in the northwestern city of Telsiai. Zemaitijos Pieno Investicija will take over ownership of an 85.9 percent equity stake in Klaipedos Pienas and an 87.8 percent stake in the cheese producer Silutes Rambynas. Shareholders will receive one share with a nominal value of 3 litas (0.87 euros) in Zemaitijos Pieno Investicija for every share in Zemaitijos Pienas. The new company will have an authorized share capital of 10.6 million litas in total.
LASCO's contract with a Croatian shipyard for the construction of eight tankers has taken effect. Company spokeswoman Marita Ozolina-Tumanovska said that LASCO has paid the first installment for the vessels, which will include eight medium sized ice-class tankers. The company would not reveal the total price of the ordered double-hull tankers, which will have a capacity of 51,800 tons, saying only that it paid the first installment using its own funds. The contract provides that the first two of the tankers would be supplied in 2006 and the rest by the end of 2009.
The Tallink Group announced that since the state had decided not to subsidize shipping companies, it would start considering what its strategic options were. CFO Andres Hunt said the company had yet to work out any concrete steps, but he added that Tallink might consider seeking different application for the ships or bringing them under another EU country's flag. Earlier, company officials mentioned that they could switch the ferry Romantika from the Tallinn-Helsinki route to handle Swedish traffic.
Apranga, Lithuania's largest retail clothing chain controlled by the MGBaltic concern, is set to launch a bond issue. On April 30, the company's annual general meeting of shareholders approved the board's plan to launch a one-year bond issue. The bonds will be worth 7 million litas (2 million euros) at par and have an annual interest rate of 4 percent. Algimantas Variakojis, project manager at Finasta, was appointed to sit on Apranga's management board.
