Summed up

  • 1998-07-23
LATVIJAS KRAJBANKA PROUD OF ITS RESULTS: Latvijas Krajbanka President Arnolds Laksa said he can't help being proud of the bank's achievements. Compared to last year's indicators, bank assets as of June 30 jumped from 66.6 million lats ($111 million) to 131.3 million lats. The net worth of credit almost tripled from 7.4 million lats to 21.9 million lats. Laksa said volume of deposits doubled from 57 million lats to 107.2 million lats. As Laksa put it, these results prove the bank's strategy is correct. It allowed for an increase in bank capital and reserves to 6.5 million lats.

EXCHANGE QUOTES MEAT PACKER'S SHARES: Shares of the meat packing factory Rakvere Lihakombinaat will be quoted in the supplementary list of the Tallinn Stock Exchange starting July 21. Rain Semper, acting chief manager of the Tallinn exchange, said the factory reversed its earlier bid for the main list and submitted an application for the supplementary list. The stock exchange's listing commission accepted Rakvere's listing bid on the conditions that the company would submit a new application and register its shares with the securities inspectorate. (BNS)

DRUG COMPANY VIOLATES COMPETITION LAWS: The Lithuanian-Icelandic-Swedish joint venture Ilsanta was fined 20,000 litas ($5,000) for violating the country's competition laws. Ilsanta imports intravenous solutions to Lithuania. The Competition Council discovered the company had signed a market division agreement with its main rival, Latvian pharmaceuticals company Grindex. According to the deal, Grindex should have stopped exporting intravenous solutions to Lithuania in 1996. Competition experts believe this affected Lithuanian patients and hospitals, who were deprived of the possibility to buy cheaper Latvian solutions. (BNS)

OLD BEER FROM NEW FACILITIES: Estonian beer maker Tartu Olletehas, owned by the Finnish Olvi group, will complete the construction of a new production unit with 16 mash vats by August. The new vats have a total capacity of 1.3 million liters. After the current stage of expansion is completed, the brewery's annual output capacity will increase by 13.3 million liters. The new facility, in which 25.4 million kroons ($1.75 million) were invested, is part of a major expansion plan. In December, the company will buy and install a new 22.5 million kroon bottling line with a capacity of 15,000 liters per hour. Tartu Olletehas will invest 93 million kroons in total this year. (BNS)

BIDS SUBMITTED FOR POWER GRID PRIVATIZATION: Several bids were submitted to the Estonian Privatization Agency (EPA) for the 49 percent of shares in the Narva power grid and 100 percent in the Laanemaa grid. Observers say it is likely that bids for both companies came from the same investors, but EPA Director General Vaino Sarnet has earlier ruled out the possibility that both companies will be sold to the same investor. According to previous reports, Finland's Imatran Voima, Sweden's Vattenfall, the ABB group, Norway's AEG, the Hamburg regional power grid, and the French state energy monopoly Electricite de France were likely to submit the bids. The EPA council is expected to pick the buyers in mid-September. (BNS)

PRIVATIZATION MONEY DIVIDED: The Lithuanian Cabinet of Ministers approved the second-half estimate of the Privatization Fund, allocating one-third of the money for financing various socioeconomic and business programs. Almost 1.4 billion litas ($35 million) were allocated for compensation of the lost Soviet ruble savings. Another 40 million litas were earmarked in allowances to small and medium sized businesses, 44.5 million litas for the program of agricultural and food products market regulation and export encouragement, and 48 million litas for land-reclamation. The country's five major hospitals will receive 40 million litas for upgrading the wards, and the same sum will go toward improving the sanitary conditions of schools and universities. (BNS)

ALDARIS SUPPORTS RIGA'S 800TH ANNIVERSARY: The Riga City Council and Aldaris Brewery signed an agreement to launch a new Riga-800 brand of beer in honour of Riga's upcoming 800th anniversary. Aldaris' President Vitalijs Gavrilovs said the company was working on developing the new brand formula. The new beer will be available for sale in 1999. Under the agreement between the city and Aldaris, 1 santim from the sale of each bottle will be transferred into the Riga City Council's fund for festivities for the city's 800th anniversary. The city council will be cleaning up and rebuilding parts of Riga to commemorate the anniversary in 2001. Aldaris and the Riga City Council will also cooperate in organizing festivities and sponsoring historic events in Riga. (BNS)