Company briefs - 2011-06-02

Since the beginning of the year, the banking sector has issued 366 million lats (522.8 million euros) in new loans, notes Financial and Capital Market Commission representative Anna Dravniece, reports Nozare.lv. The banks’ loans to Latvian companies amounted to 206 million lats; to households - 38 million lats; and to non-residents - 122 million lats. 5,700 new loans were issued in April, amounting to 170 million lats. Sixty-six percent of them were issued by the European Union banks’ subsidiaries and foreign banks’ branches. The banking sector’s total loan portfolio decreased 1.1 percent, or 148.7 million lats, to 13.7 billion lats at the end of April. Since the beginning of the year, the banking sector’s total loan portfolio has shrunk 4.1 percent, or 590.3 million lats.

In the first quarter of 2011, the number of guests in hotels and other accommodation establishments in Latvia grew 29 percent, compared to the first three months of 2010, according to the Central Statistical Bureau’s data, reports Nozare.lv. 247,100 guests stayed in Latvian hotels in the first quarter of 2011. Sixty-four percent were foreign tourists and 36 percent Latvian residents. The number of foreign guests increased 29.5 percent, while the number of guests from Russia - 73 percent. 23.3 percent of tourists in Latvian hotels were from Russia; 10.1 percent - from Lithuania; another 10.1 percent - from Estonia; 7.1 percent - from Norway; 6.2 percent - from Finland; six percent from Germany, another six percent from Sweden; 4.3 percent - from Great Britain; 2.6 percent - from Poland and 24.3 percent from other countries.

Altechna is the winner of the German Business Award in Lithuania 2011, which was presented on May 25, for the sixth time at an evening reception at the exhibition center in Vilnius, reports ELTA. The German Business Award in Lithuania 2011 focused on “responsibility for the future” and was conferred to small- and medium-sized enterprises in Lithuania that have active business relations with Germany. Altechna convinced the jury with its leading technologies and its exemplary mixture of young and experienced employees. The company, from the photonic and laser sector, has its own research and development center named Workshop of Photonics. The company is exporting to more than 40 countries in the world - with exports contributing 81 percent to the total turnover. Germany is the third most important export destination with about 300 customers.