Earnings of the listed and to-be-listed companies

> The consolidated net profit of AS Kalev in the first half of 1999 was 147,000 kroons ($9,900). The company's turnover fell by one third to 150.1 million kroons between January and June, Kalev reported. In January-June, Kalev sold a total of 4,299 tons of confectionery, a result comparable with that of January-June 1996. Kalev's sales fell on all markets except Latvia. The fall in sale figures was the most dramatic on the Russian and Ukrainian markets.

> Insurer Leks Kindlustus ended the second quarter with a profit of 730,000 kroons and a technical insurance profit of 1.3 million kroons, the company reported. Board Chairman Raul Kastan said the profit and a positive technical insurance result are as expected and that the positive trend is expected to continue in the third and fourth quarters.

> Tallinna Farmaatsiatehas, a pharmaceutical firm, reported its January-June loss at 1.7 million kroons. The company said that its turnover in the first half of 1999 was 31 million kroons, down 46 percent year on year. The com-pany's export figure declined by nearly 58 percent, but its Estonian sales increased by 22.1 percent.

Latvia

> Latvijas Gaze expects to meet the target sales figure of natural gas this year, LG Board Chairman Adrians Davis told the Baltic News Service Monday. He said that this year the company intended to sell the estimated 1.245 billion cubic meters of natural gas and achieve a net turnover of 85 million lats ($146.55 million). The Latvian gas company sold 620 million cubic meters of natural gas and 15,500 tons of liquid gas during the first seven months of 1999. In the same period in 1998 LG sold 655 million cubic meters of natural gas and 17,700 tons of liquid gas. LG's net profit in the first six months of the year was over 5 million lats on a net turnover of 39.8 million lats.

> Liepajas Metalurgs earned a profit of nearly 1.18 million lats on a turnover of 30.8 million lats in the first seven months of 1999, the company's management told BNS. During the period LM paid 2.32 million lats in taxes. In the first seven months of 1998 the company's profit was 454,449 lats on a net turnover of 38,841,451 lats. LM President Kirovs Lipmans did not predict the turnover for the whole of 1999 because demand for the company's products abroad is high and it is not possible to tell to what extent the company will be able to satisfy that demand.

> In the first seven months of this year the milk cannery Rezeknes Piena Konservu Kombinats reported a loss of 745,000 lats, the company's Financial Director Eleonora Garjane told BNS Friday. "It is less that the six-month loss, and it is better," she said. In the first half of this year the milk cannery lost 788,959 lats on a net turnover of 5,755,058 lats. Garjane said that the amount of unsold stock had been reduced. "At present our warehouses contain products worth 1.3 million lats or considerably less than last year, " she added. In 1998 the company earned a profit of 203,590 lats on a net turnover of 12,281,262 lats.

> In the first seven months of this year fiberglass manufacturer Valmieras Stikla Skiedra earned a profit of 364,000 lats, Financial Director Imants Saulitis told BNS Tuesday. "The sales have increased slightly but profit has fallen back," he said. VSS had planned its profit after seven months in 1999 would be 438,000 lats, but the com-pany's results were affected considerably by the fall of the German mark and euro exchange rates against the lat. "Due to the currency exchange rates profit dropped by some 40,000 lats," Saulitis explained. The annual profit of the company for 1999 is planned as 750,000 lats on a net turnover of 12.7 million lats.