The Estonian Evli real estate fund and the YIT construction group signed a contract for the implementation of two real estate projects in St. Petersburg at a cost of up to 180 million euros. Evli Property Investments Russia and the Finnish construction group YIT are planning to erect a nine-story office building in Primorski Prospect and a logistics center in Gorelevo, south of St. Petersburg. The cost of the two projects is nearly 100 million euros and, considering further construction rights, it could jump to 180 million euros, the companies said. The main contractor is ZAO YIT Lentek. The logistics center, set for completion in 2007, is situated close to the St. Petersburg airport.
Narvesen Baltija, Latvia's largest retail chain, increased sales by 26 percent to 40 million lats (56.9 million euros) in January-September of this year. Narvesen Baltija financial director Girts Didrihsons said the growth was due to new stores and inflation. The company has launched more that 20 stores this year. Didrihsons said the company expects to generate 55 million lats in sales, 33 percent more than last year. Narvesen Baltija is the largest distributor of press editions in Latvia, with 426 Narvesen and Preses Apvieniba stores and newsstands, holding 60 percent market share. Narvesen Baltija is half owned by Norway's Retan Servicehandel and Finland's Rautakirja. Narvesen Baltija started operations in Latvia at the end of 1997.
A Latvian subsidiary of Bite Lietuva, the Lithuanian mobile operator, will provide wireless services to the organizers of the Nov. 28-29 NATO summit in Riga. Bite Latvija will provide connection services to almost 330 organizers before and during the event, said Maarten van Engeland, Bite group CEO. The company will assure call priority for summit organizers, setting up an additional wireless base station near the NATO summit location. The company provided service to the organizers of President George W. Bush's visit to Lithuania in 2002, and to the global IT forum WITFOR hosted by Lithuania in 2003.
Auto Riga, the official Audi dealer in Latvia, will build another car showroom in the Marupe district near Riga and plans to invest 3.8 million lats (5.4 million euros) in the project. Auto Riga director Ingus Rutins said that the company has already bought two hectares of land for one million lats. The land was purchased with the company's money, but a loan will be taken to finance the construction of the showroom. Rutins said that by the end of the year the design project of the showroom center will be started and construction will be launched in the middle of the next year. The whole project will be completed by the first quarter of 2008.
