Company briefs - 2012-01-26

The U.S. sandwiches and salads franchise chain Subway plans to open up to 25 restaurants in Estonia by 2019, reports Aripaev Online. Subway International’s North European and Baltic regional development manager Justin Goes said that Subway plans to open around 20-25 restaurants in Estonia in the next 7 years. These would be located all over Estonia, but mainly in Tallinn and its vicinity. Goes explained the choice of Estonia with the initiative shown from here, while no interest has been expressed from Latvia and Lithuania. “Another factor in favor of Estonia is that Estonia is very close to Finland, where we have had major growth and the number of restaurants nears 100, thus it can influence our position in Estonia too.”

Vladimir Antonov, a former Bankas Snoras shareholder, sold his stake in Banco Trasatlantico to minority shareholders from Panama for USD 13.3 million, reports Bloomberg. Antonov sold his 14,000 shares, or 85.16 percent, in Banco Trasatlantico in exchange for the bank’s investment portfolios worth USD 13.3 million at Geneva-based financial firm Multiassets, according to a filling on the Panamanian banking regulator’s Web site. Lithuanian authorities are trying to locate and freeze assets by former Snoras shareholders and people related to them. Antonov, who is fighting extradition to Lithuania, was arrested on Nov. 24 in London after Lithuanian authorities issued a European arrest warrant over claims of fraud and embezzlement. He denies any wrongdoing. The Lithuanian central bank alleged that some missing assets at Snoras may have been transferred to the private accounts of people related to former owners.