Fortum Klaipeda announced it would build a new thermal power plant in the port town. The cost of the facility might reach some 140 million euros, with EU funds financing one-fifth of costs, CEO Juozas Duoniela said. The new 25 megawatt cogeneration power plant will burn unrecyclable household and other waste suitable for energy recovery, as well as biological and organic fuel. It should be launched in 2011, Duoniela said. Fortum Klaipeda is 49-percent owned by the utility company Klaipedos Energija. A similar plant, the first of its kind in Lithuania, was launched in Panevezys last December.
Emila Gustava Eesti, the Estonian subsidiary of Emila Gustava Shokolades, Latvia's producer of exclusive chocolates, may be bankrupt, according to reports. The Harju County Court is scheduled to review a bankruptcy petition by Emila Gustava Eesti on March 10. According to the Krediidiinfo database, the company, which expanded to Estonia in 2005, made a loss of nearly half a million kroons (32,000 euros) on sales of 3.4 million kroons in 2006. Tax debts total more than 220,000 kroons. In its financial report for 2006, Emila Gustava Eesti said that the loss was the result of insufficient knowledge of the market situation.
The German discounter chain Lidl earned a profit of 247 million kroons (15.8 million euros) by selling the plots it had acquired in Estonia while considering expansion plans in the Baltic state. The company sold assets for a total price of more than 438 million kroons during the financial year 2006/2007 after the grocer decided to drop its plans. It was reported that the Tallinna Kaubamaja group, owner of the Selver chain of supermarkets, bought a large part of the properties.