LVM to buy wood-processing shares

RIGA - The Latvian Ministry of Agriculture has prepared a bill for the Cabinet of Ministers which provides that the state-owned forest management company Latvijas Valsts Mezi (LVM) will buy 10 shares in the wood processing company Latvijas Finieris (LF), reports Nozare.lv. The Agriculture Ministry’s bill does not indicate the price LVM would pay for LF shares.
The Russian wood processing company Sveza last year offered to pay 10,000 lats (14,280 euros) for each LF common share with voting rights, and 1,000 lats per share with restricted voting rights.

Sveza is the leading company in Europe in the production of birch plywood. Currently, the company’s share in European markets is 20 percent; however, the enterprise has set its goal to become a leader in the wood processing market by 2020. 6,000 employees work in eight company factories.

The annual report from LF shows that company’s core capital amounts to 40.4 million lats, consisting of 7,242 shares.
Latvijas Finieris reported revenue of 100 million lats for 2010, which is 44.7 percent more than in 2009 when the company’s turnover reached 69.1 million lats, according to the company’s pre-audited data. Last year the company sold 198,000 cubic meters of wood products, and its profit totaled 9 million lats. In 2009, Latvijas finieris posted 5.7 million lats in losses.
Overall, Latvijas Finieris production volumes remained stable throughout 2010, and the company’s exports kept steadily increasing, said company representative Jolanta Medne.

Latvijas Finieris group employed 2,030 people in 2010, or 155 people more than in 2009.
The company was established on Oct. 2, 1992 by 209 physical entities from three plywood factories - Lignums, Latvijas berzs and Furnieris, with turnover of 9.2 million lats.