RIGA - The Baltic states' benchmark index reached a record-high last week on gains by Estonian stocks, as investors speculated on the ramifications of Swedbank's takeover offer to Hansapank shareholders.
The Baltic Index ended the week of Feb. 18 at 450.6, a staggering 50 percent higher than its 52-week low of 300. Turnover on the 19 listings that are part of the index reached an impressive 96 million euros, 83 percent of which came on Hansapank, the Estonian branch of the Hansabank Group. The stock climbed 2.15 percent to a new high of 185.41 kroons (11.85 euros.)
"Such turnover was natural against the backdrop of the news about the takeover bid being made for Hansapank. There's interest for the stock because there are enough traders who believe that the bid won't succeed at this price," Riho Talumaa, a trader for Suprema investment bank, told the Baltic News Service.
Trading in Hansa stock has grown nearly fivefold on the Tallinn Stock Exchange since Swedbank announced it wanted to buy out minority shareholders and increase its holding in the bank, the largest in the Baltics, to some 90 percent. Eesti Ekspress, a weekly paper, wrote that the most active traders in the stock were Western investment funds.
In Latvia, the biggest gains came on Latvijas Kugnieciba (Lasco), which soared 7.3 percent on weekly trade of 313,000 lats (445,400 euros). Arnis Malbergs of Latvijas Unibanka said interest in the stock was related to rumors that Ventspils Nafta, the company's largest shareholder, could be forced to make a buy-out offer to minority holders if proven that it controlled over 50 percent of Lasco.
Malbergs said that in such a case the buy-out offer would be made at balance value, or 0.77 lats per share.
