RIGA - This year is looking good for Parex Bank. The Finance and Capital Market Commission of Latvia has decided to register 5.35 million euros worth of Parex Bank's bonds for listing on the Riga Stock Exchange debt securities list, a representative of the financial watchdog said.
Finance and Capital Market Commission PR adviser Ieva Upleja said that the commission's board considered documents submitted by Parex Bank for the registration of the subordinated bonds in line with the bank's decision of March 2008, to issue the bonds aimed at developing its core services.
Currently, Parex Bank ranks as one of the top three Latvian banks by assets, alongside Hansabanka and SEB bank.
Its co-owners, Valerijs Kargins and Viktors Krasovickis, are also the bank's top executives.
The board of the Finance and Capital Markets Commission decided to register the 53,500 bonds, issued by Parex Bank, for listing on the stock exchange, with the face value set at 100 euros for one bond.
A REASON TO SMILE
Parex bank owners have another reason to smile as they are also at the top of the list for most expensive privately owned houses.
The most expensive private house in Latvia is Villa Adlera, in the seaside resort city Jurmala, and belongs to Parex Bank's co-owner Valerijs Kargins. Its value is estimated at 50 million euros, shows a Baltic Screen study published by Latvian business daily Dienas Bizness.
The second most expensive private house is Villa Marta, a wedding gift to Aleksandra Krasovicka, the daughter of Parex Bank's second biggest owner Viktors Krasovickis. He also controls various other structures in Jurmala totaling 40 million euros.
Transit businessman Julijs Krumins' house in Baltezers is worth 35 million euros and ranks in the third position.
Further down the list is the Benjamins family villa Cote d'Azur in Jurmala, worth 20 million euros. Russian businessman Yuri Shefler's guest house in Jurmala also ranks in the top ten and is worth 10 million euros.
The group conducting the study said that the value of Latvia's most expensive private house is more than five times higher than the most expensive house in Lithuania.
In Spring of 2008 Lithuanian magazine Veidas reported that businessman Benas Gudelis, the head and key shareholder of cosmetics and perfume trade company Fragrances International, is the owner of the most expensive house in Lithuania located in the Zverynas district of Vilnius valued at 6.1 million lats.
