Half year earnings of the most liquid companies

Hansapank earned 43.6 million kroons ($ 2.84 million) profit in June, bringing the bank's half-year result to 234.4 million kroons. Of the bank's income in June, net income from interest after provisions accounted for 29 percent, financial income 30.4 percent, 30.7 percent from service charges and 9.9 percent from other income. Hansapank's total assets stood at 23.37 billion kroons at the end of June, after an increase of 790 million kroons, or nearly 3.5 percent over the month.

Norma's non-consolidated sales turnover for the January-June period was 238.8 million kroons, with net profit of 65.2 million kroons. In 1998, the respective figures were 228.6 million kroons and 45 million kroons. The company will publish its consolidated January-June balance sheet and profit report on July 30, after the report has been examined by the Norma council, the company informed the stock exchange.

Optiva Bank's non-consolidated profit for the period from January through June was 7.6 million kroons, the month of June alone accounted for 2.6 million kroons of this total, according to non-audited figures. The bank's total turnover during the six-month period was 100.6 million kroons. Net income from interest after provisions accounted for 42.5 percent, commission and service fees 21.9 percent, income from stock investments 19.2 percent and income from currency transactions 15.3 percent of the total income. Optiva Bank's total assets at the end of June stood at 3.44 billion kroons, up by 267.2 million kroons or 8.4 percent over the six months. In June, the growth in total assets was 209.4 million kroons or 6.5 percent, the bank reported.

Uhispank reported its January-June profit at 48.1 million kroons, of which the June profit accounted for 8.05 million kroons. Last year, the bank reported 81.6 million kroons profit in January-June. The total profit of Tallinna Pank and Uhispank in January-June 1998 was 46 million kroons, Uhispank reported. Uhispank's total assets stood at 14.3 billion kroons at the end of June, down by 1 percent from May. From the end of 1998, the increase in total assets was 5.5 percent.

Latvia

Unibanka reported a 6.13 million lat ($10.22 million) profit in the first 6 months of this year, Unibanka press secretary Haralds Burkovskis told the Baltic News Service. Unibanka earned 601,000 lats in June. Burkovskis pointed out that Unibanka's 1999 six-month profit is 92 percent higher than in the same period in 1998 when the bank earned 3.2 million lats. The bank's revenues from basic operations during the first six months of the year were 15.28 million lats, up 47 percent from the same period in 1998. The six month audit made by PricewaterhouseCoopers international auditors is expected to be finished in mid-August. Unibanka's assets surged 4.56 million lats, to 313.17 million lats, at the end of June. The bank's capital and reserves, together with subordinated capital, on June 30 amounted to 43.07 million lats.

Lithuania

Birzu Akcine Pieno Bendrove dairy boosted its semi-annual turnover by 24.3 percent year-on-year after successful investments in cheese producer Kauno Surine and other subsidiaries. The company sold 69.6 million litas' ($17.4 million) worth of products over the first six months of this year, up from 56 million litas sold in the same 1998 period.

Ukio Bankas reported an unaudited net profit of 1.62 million litas for the first half of this year against 573,000 litas posted for the same 1998 period. The bank's 1999 second-quarter profit grew to over 1.51 million litas from 107,000 litas netted in the first quarter. The semi-annual profit accounted for 42.6 percent of the bank's full-year target of 3.84 million litas.

Hermis, Lithuania's second largest private bank, posted a non-audited net profit of 13.6 million litas for the first half of 1999. The bank had a semi-annual profit of 20 million litas in 1998, but it shrank to 412,000 litas at the end of the year due to the impact of the Russian crisis. During the first six months of 1999, Hermis earned 36.9 percent of its planned full-year profit of 36.9 million litas. As of late June, Hermis' assets totaled 1.64 billion litas, up by 5.6 percent over six months.

Lietuvos Energija, the country's biggest energy company, reported a pre-tax semi-annual profit of around 190 million litas, according to preliminary data. The half-year profit figure is up from 99.8 million litas posted for the same 1998 period. According to the daily Lietuvos Rytas, the increase is due to repayment of 185 million litas of the state's domestic debt to the utility at the start of this year. The head of the company's planning unit, Rimantas Sukys, has told BNS, however, that the utility made a profit only on paper this year as it has failed to recover $100 million owed by Belarus for electricity exports.

Lietuvos Draudimas, the biggest Baltic insurer, and its subsidiaries subscribed 110.6 million litas in first-half insurance premiums, up from 107.7 million litas reported for the same 1998 period.

The oil company Mazeikiu Nafta posted a loss of 47.241 million litas for the first half of this year. Mazeikiai Nafta's semi-annual turnover was 1.08 billion litas, its spokeswoman, Virginija Kristinaitiene, reported. The concern had a first-quarter loss of 31.17 million litas on a three-month turnover of 371.3 million litas. Kristinaitiene said the loss was due largely to the 26-day closure of the Mazeikiai oil refinery, which forms part of the oil complex.

The Lithuanian refrigerator producer Snaige said that the weakening of the euro against the U.S. dollar had reduced its six-month income by around 3 million litas. An 11 percent decline in turnover was also due to the Russian economic crisis which had forced the company to search for alternative markets, Snaige Financial Director Virginija Graudiniene said. Snaige's exports to the CIS markets plummeted to 8.8 percent this year from 28 percent last year. Snaige sold over 111,100 refrigerators and freezers during the first six months of this year, down from 115,700 sold a year ago. The company's six-month turnover shrank to 74.62 million litas this year from 84.13 million posted last year. The company, based in Alytus, southern Lithuania, had a first-half pre-tax profit of 1.73 million litas versus 5.15 million litas earned a year ago. Snaige anticipates a pick-up in sales and a higher profit in the autumn. It plans to produce and sell approximately 260,000 refrigerators this year.

One of the largest and most stable Lithuanian knit-wear manufacturers, Utenos Trikotazas, has earned over the first six months of this year 5.9 million litas in net profits. Last year in the same time period it had a 5.2 million litas profit. Utenos Trikotazas' turnover this year grew 15 percent and reached 53.3 million litas compared with last year's turnover of 46.4 million litas for the same period . Growing exports, up 27 percent, to Western Europe meant favorable progress for this company.

Vilniaus Bankas posted a non-audited net profit of 35.03 million litas for the first half of 1999, which accounts for 48.7 percent of its annual target of 71.9 million litas. Lithuania's largest private bank boosted its half-year profit by 2.3 percent, from 34.25 million litas, reported for the respective 1998 period. Vilniaus Bankas' monthly profit was 6.2 million litas in June. As of late June, the bank's assets totaled 2.81 billion litas, or 1.9 percent more than at the beginning of this year.