Off the wire

MERGING INSURANCE COMPANIES: Germany's Alte Leipziger Europa will merge all the insurance companies it owns in Latvia, the company has reported. ALE just acquired 100 percent of non-life insurance company Alterna and life insurance company Alterna-Viva as well as more than 70 percent stake in non-life insurance company Latgarants. The three insurance companies sold for about 7 million lats ($11.29 million). The company's representatives said that some of the freshly acquired Latvian insurance companies might specialize in one concrete type of insurance in the future.

CLOSE TO DOUBLE: The volume of banner advertisements in Estonia's biggest Internet advertising environment in September was 2.37 million kroons ($132,000) or nearly twice as high as in August. According to the marketing advisory body, Mega's share on the Internet advertising market increased from 7.8 percent to 12 percent in September. Nevertheless, Delfi is still the market leader controlling 24 percent of the market in the same month.

SHORTAGE SWELLS PRICES: Wood processors and exporters are short of timber this fall in Estonia, and the prices of round timber have risen by up to 15 percent over the past half year. AS Forestex board chairman, Erki Unn said wood processors and exporters are experiencing a shortage of timber, which may be caused by the increased capacity of sawmills and continuing round timber export. The shortage of timber could also be caused by the State Forests Management Center, which sold 60 percent of this year's timber resource in the first half of the year.

WANT MORE ENERGY: Some 15 Western energy companies have expressed their interest in the upcoming privatization of the Lithuanian national power utility Lietuvos Energija, an official said Oct. 4. The companies include RWE Energy, Electrabel, Electricite de France, Tractebel Electricity & Gas Europe, AES Horizons, Cinergy Global Power, E.ON Energy, NRG Energy, Vattenfall, Union Fenosa, Fortum Power & Heat, ELYO, EnBW International, Iberdrola and TNG Holding, Deputy Finance Minister Vytenis Junevicius said.

NEW BANK IN LATVIA: A new bank, Venta, has filed documents to the Bank of Latvia to get a banking license, the bank's biggest shareholder Yury Schetinin said. The bank's foundation share capital is 3 million lats ($4.84 million), and it's founded by three private individuals from Latvia and the British company Regional Property Developments Ltd. Schetinin said the bank Venta is founded in a favorable economic situation. The newly established bank Venta will most likely carve out its own special niche, heads of Latvia's biggest commercial banks said.

RIGA STAYS ON TOP: New flats in newly-built houses in the center of Riga remained the most expensive new apartments in the Baltic countries in October, real estate company Ober Haus reported. A new single-room flat in a new house in Riga's center costs from $1,100 to $1,600 per square meter. In Tallinn the price is $762 per square meter, and in Vilnius the prices range from $900 to $1,300. Moreover, in October the prices for new apartments fell in Tallinn and stayed almost unchanged in Riga and Vilnius.

MORE BOOZE TO EU: Estonian distillery company Rakvere Piiritusetehas last week signed a long-term contract regarding export of spirits to countries in the European Union. Under the contract, the distillery will export more than two million liters of spirits to EU countries until March 2001, Rakvere Piiritusetehas board chairman Arvo Antropov said. Antropov said that in order to enter the EU market, the distillery's production had to be tested in German laboratories.

THIRD TIME LUCKY: The Lithuanian Cabinet of Ministers on Oct. 4 approved a draft agreement to sell a 75 percent stake in the Lithuanian Shipping Company (LISCO) to B.B. Bredo B.V., a consortium registered in the Netherlands. The director general of the Lithuanian State Property Fund, Stasys Vaitkevicius, said the agreement was likely to be signed in two weeks at the earliest. This is the third attempt to privatize LISCO. Two earlier attempts fell through last year because the government did not accept the price, 140 million litas ($35 million), offered by investors.

BRITISH SPINNERS INVESTING: Shiloh Spinners Ltd., the largest yarn spinning factory in England, is moving its production to Trinyciai, the yarn spinning factory based in the Lithuanian port of Klaipeda, with 1.2 million pounds earmarked for initial investment. The investment will enable Trinyciai to step up its output and raise the quality of production, said Rimas Varanauskas, director of the Industrial Enterprises Management Department at the SBA Group, which manages Trinyciai. The Klaipeda-based company, which now operates at a loss, hopes to start making a profit next year.