VILNIUS - MG Baltic has announced its intention to sell its majority stake in Elta to a little-known company that appears to be related to the controversial Respublika publishing group.
MG Baltic, Lithuania's largest business concern, said it would sell its 57.93 stake in the news agency to Ziniu Partneriai, a company that was recently set up on the premises of Respublika, one of the nation's largest publishing houses.
"We have decided to pull out from small businesses," Raimondas Kurlianskis, MG Baltic vice-president and CEO of Elta, told the Baltic News Service.
Unofficial sources claim that Vitas Tomkus, the scandalous owner of Respublika, is among the founders of Ziniu Partneriai. Information available from the Register of Legal Entities shows that the company has been registered at the premises of Respublika.
The company's CEO is Rimantas Kanapienis, who has a record of work in the mass media sector.
In July, the Respublika group won a tender for the government's 39.51 percent in Elta, paying 6.66 million litas (1.93 million euros). The bid exceeded the starting price by 3.3 times, which was indicative of how badly Tomkus wanted the interest in the news agency.
Diana Veleckiene, CEO of Respublika, said that the application for the purchase and management of the stake would be submitted to the Competition Council on Sept. 6.
The news agency has a stock capital of 683,600 litas with one share valued at 10 litas at par.
The agency, which employs a workforce of about 50, owns a building with an area of 1,490 square meters in Gedimino Avenue, the main street of downtown Vilnius, and has leased part to MG Baltic Investment, which in turn opened a hotel and a casino.
Elta's net losses amounted to 300,000 litas in 2004, a plunge of 46 times versus the year-earlier figure. Annual revenues increased 19.2 percent year-on-year to 2.4 million litas.
