RIGA - Norway's Linstow Senterutvikling AS has decided to reorganize its current retail and shopping center operator in Latvia, SIA Linstow, handing over part of its assets to a newly established company, Linstow Holdings, the future owner of all Linstow retail-center capital shares.
Linstow lawyer Maris Krakops said that Linstow Holdings would own all capital shares in five department stores by the end of the year, while Linstow would remain a subsidiary of the company and own the Origo shopping center.
Krakops also said that Norway's Linstow has decided to place all investments in the Centrs shopping mall to subsidiary Tampere Invest, which is owner of the residential space near Centrs.
Once minority shareholders have been bought out, the department store and Tampere Invest are to be merged.
Meanwhile, all Linstow Group assets will remain in the group's ownership, and only the reorganization of ownership among group companies will take place, said the company's lawyer. The aim of the move is to optimize ownership, making it more transparent while clarifying tax planning and cash flow.
Linstow has a paid a capital of 38 million lats (56.7 million euros), all belonging to Norway's Linstow Senterutvikling AS. Operating under the name of Linstow Varner until May of this year, the company posted an estimated turnover of 10.2 million lats last year, up 49 percent on the previous year. Profits were up 98 percent to 4.4 million lats.
In addition to shopping malls, Linstow also owns and operates the Reval Hotel Latvija and Reval Hotel Ridzene in Riga.
Earlier this month Linstow announced that the Reval Hotel Latvia, one of the tallest buildings in Riga, would launch the construction of a 20 million euro six-story extension on its eastern face this October.
A deal on the extension was signed by Norway's Linstow International AS, Reval Hotel Group owner, with the SBRE consolidation that included Latvian construction companies RE&RE and Skonto Buve. Completion of the extension is set for March 2006.
The annex will have a total floor space of 24,000 square meters. The former exhibition hall on the east wing of the hotel will be turned into a conference hall, adjacent to the six-story add-on that will house 200 rooms and a first floor shopping mall. A parking lot big enough for 100 cars is to be built underground.
The hotel is planned to go through a total of four construction stages, with further expansion in all directions of the expected complex.
In May 2001, Linstow International AS completed a major face-lift of the original 27-story Soviet-built hotel with an investment over $25 million.
