Company briefs - 2008-08-27

  • 2008-08-27
The Latvian corruption watchdog has officially given Latvijas Krajbanka (Latvian Savings Bank) the green light to take over the Baltikums Dziviba life insurance company. Concerns had previously been raised that the merger would create a dominant force in the life insurance market that could be strong enough to stifle competition. The watchdog found, however, that following the deal the market would remain open enough to provide fair competition for any third providers. After the merger, Baltikums Dziviba will be integrated with the Latvijas Krajbanka group, but will continue to operate as a separate legal entity providing life insurance services. The merger deal is worth a total of 25 million lats(35 million euros.)

Estonia's Maag Dairy has announced that its profits in the first half of 2008 have skyrocketed by as much as 83 percent over the same period last year. The company's H1 turnover this year amounted to an impressive 168 million kroons (10.7 million euros). Valdis Noppel, CEO of the dairy, said the high growth in the turnover was mainly due to the merger of Rakvere Piim dairy in May. The company has also invested heavily in innovative technologies and product development. "We invested nearly six million kroons into a new production line, which will make it possible for us to become the first dairy to bottle milk product," Noppel said.