Company briefs - 2006-11-01

  • 2006-11-01
Hansabanka has earned 45.9 million lats (65.3 million euros) in profit during the first nine months of this year, a phenomenal 53.2 percent rise over last year, making the bank the most profitable in Latvia. SEB Unibanka takes second place with 32.5 million lats in profit, up 5.1 percent, and Rietumu Banka is third by profit with 19 million lats, up 0.6 percent. A total of 13 banks have earned more than one million lats in profit during January-September 2006, according to the Latvian Commercial Banks Association. The 24 banks operating in Latvia have earned 177.8 million lats already this year.

Gubernija, a major Lithuanian beer producer, lost 2.1 million litas (0.61 million euros) during the first nine months of the year. However, this is up 10.5 percent from the company's losses of 1.9 million litas during the same period last year. Sales fell by 4 percent to 40.92 million litas, according to the company's financial report. Beer production declined by 7.5 percent and the total production output was down 4.6 percent. Beer exports rose by 25.8 percent to 3.60 million liters. The company, which is based in Siauliai, managed to trim annual losses to 4.1 million litas last year, down 13.9 percent from losses of 4.8 million litas the previous year. Revenues increased by 8.8 percent to 54.9 million litas.

The Estonian shipping group Tallink announced that it expected 2006 fiscal year sales to reach 11.7 billion kroons (750 million euros). Tallink management expects an EBITDA of approximately 2.8 billion kroons, with a targeted earnings per share of 8.5 kroons. The forecasted growth is an effect of investments made during the 2005/2006 financial year and the enlargement of business. A new ferry between Tallinn and Helsinki, as well as a new hotel operation, will help improve results starting from spring 2007. Due to the seasonal nature of the company's business most of Tallink's revenue is generated during the second half of the financial year. Sales in the last financial year amounted to 6.3 billion kroons. The company is expecting an 85 percent annual increase in sales.