The Latvian government has announced that it does not any time soon intend to hand over its remaining shares in Lattelekom or the LMT mobile operator.
Prime Minister Indulis Emsis said that although TeliaSonera would probably like to buy the state's stake, the government was unlikely to do so any time soon. Emsis also spoke of the need to consolidate the state holding in LMT, the country's most profitable company, "regaining full control over LMT at any means possible."
Vilniaus Vingis, one of Europe's leading producers of deflection yokes for color-picture tubes, launched a production of flat 32-inch tubes this week. A company director said that it had produced 1,000 units of new deflection yokes for South Korean electronics giant Samsung's TV tube plant in Hungary. The yokes will be sent for serial production tests this month. The company intends to produce 5,000 such yokes in August, with the monthly output planned to reach 20,000 units toward the end of this year.
The novel three-litre packages of vodka, resembling wine packages with a spigot, that alcohol producer Liviko introduced in May are selling well with local consumers. "The Viru Valge bag-in-boxes have actually been on sale for only a month-and-a-half, and therefore it's a bit too soon to draw any far-reaching conclusions," said Liviko's marketing director Janek Kalvi.
Disgusted with the trend of falling airfare, SAS has announced it would buck the trend and raise ticket prices. Director of SAS in Denmark Jens Willumsen was quoted as saying, "Prices have come down so much that sometimes all kinds of fees are already higher than the price of a ticket. This has lead to a situation that hampers normal development and cannot last long," he said. SAS will raise the price of tickets out of Copenhagen and, barring negative results, will extend the hike to other routes.
