Lietuva in brief - 2012-06-28

Lithuania on June 26 said it has postponed signing the Visaginas nuclear power plant concession agreement, according to Lithuanian Energy Minister Arvydas Sekmokas, reports LETA. It was initially expected that the concession agreement with the strategic investor, the Japanese company Hitachi, would be signed by the end of June, while now signing of the agreement has been postponed until the end of the year. Sekmokas explained this was necessary so talks could continue with the strategic investor and regional partners. The concession agreement was initialed on March 30. The agreement lays down the main project implementation principles, as well as Lithuania’s obligations and rights in the project. The concession agreement provides that Latvia’s power utility Latvenergo would have a 20 percent stake in the project, and its investment will be around 1 billion euros. Estonia would get a 22 percent stake, with Lithuania 38 percent, and Hitachi with 20 percent.

Continuing the annual tradition, Lithuanian weekly magazine shas published its 8th list of the richest Lithuanians, reports ELTA. At the moment, and not having even a close rival, the richest person in the country is Nerijus Numavicius, who holds 60 percent of Vilniaus Prekyba (VP) Group shares. Counting directly or indirectly managed companies, Numavicius has around 60 percent of shares in all companies constituting the large VP Group, including NDX Energy, which is outside the Group. The total holding, according to the financial reports for 2011, is worth around 5.9 billion litas (1.7 billion euros). The most valuable company of the Group is Maxima Group (valued at 3.8 billion litas), and the Vilnius-based Akropolis shopping mall alone is worth approximately 1 billion litas. Second on the list of the richest people in Lithuania are Lyda Lubiene, widow of long-term Achema head Bornislovas Lubys, and his daughters Viktorija Lubyte and Jurate Zadeikiene, who together hold Achema shares worth 930 million litas. Zilvinas Marcinkevicius, with 14 percent of VP Group shares (worth 815 million litas), came in third on the list.