Tallinn - Despite its recent troubles and drops in its share price Swedbank is the still the largest company in Estonia by some margin according to a recent report.
Baltic investment bank GILD Bankers compiled its second annual list of the top 100 companies . Swedbank (Hansabank) had an estimated market value of 5.6 billion euros in Jan. 1 2008.
Making up the rest of the top five were Eesti Energia, SEB PAnk Eesti Telekom and Tallink Group.
The report is more evidence of economic difficulties. The total estimated equity value of the 100 largest Estonian companies dropped 11 percent from around 22 billion euros in 2007 to around 19.4 billion euros in 2008.
Only companies with a net worth of 44 million euro were included in the ranking list .
Analyst say that though the overall shape of the list is unlikely to change there has been a significant drop in equity value the top companies even in the last few weeks.
"We also calculated that by October 2008 the entire equity value of the top ten companies in the ranking dropped even by 42 percent. Clearly Estonia is facing economic challenges, especially in 2009, but strong companies will survive and find attractive opportunities to strengthen their positions," GILD Bankers Managing Partner Rain Tamm said.
The top 100 show a large number of Estonian companies are under foreign ownership. The trend is still to continue. Tamm said that in 2009 he expects foreign companies to buy large Estonian companies.
"This should be regarded as a positive development as we can keep valuable companies, jobs and markets running. At the same time Estonian entrepreneurs will receive capital to invest into new projects in Estonia. Local companies with strong liquidity are likely to expand in the region, also to Sweden and Finland," Tamm said.
The report rank the largest Estonian companies by their estimated market capitalization, provided they were listed on Tallinn Stock Exchange at the beginning of 2008. The valuation is based on comparative valuation method, using only available public information.
The top ten of the most valuable Estonian companies
1. Hansapank
2. Eesti Energia
3. SEB Pank1205
4. Eesti Telekom
5. Tallink Grupp
6. Olympic Entertainment Group
7. BLRT Grupp
8. Sampo Pank
9. Tele2 Eesti
10. Tallinna Sadam
