Summed up

  • 1999-01-21
PICK UP THE PHONE, PAY A FEE: It's a common Baltic trend to charge a customer for every single napkin he uses, so it's no surprise that the telephone monopoly Eesti Telefon wants to introduce a fee for starting a call. The Consumer Protection Board said it was against the monopoly's plan, but what can it do? "It is not possible to prevent this," said Enn-Toivo Annuk, the board's deputy director. "We opposed it when the plan was discussed by the Communication Ministry's tariff commission, but the commission disregarded our objections." Eesti Telefon intends to introduce a 0.48 kroon ($0.04) fee for starting a call on May 1, and the tariff commission had in principle agreed with the future change. In return, Eesti Telefon promised to half tariffs on local calls. But it will also raise monthly subscription fees for private clients in February, while corporate subscription fees will be reduced.

BALTIC BANKS TEAM UP: Lithuania's Vilniaus Bankas, Latvia's Unibanka and Estonia's Uhisbank are inching closer to forming a conglomorate and are eager to stop competing in each others markets. At the Jan. 14 meeting in Vilnius, the three banks' officials discussed the possibilities of withdrawing each bank's subsidiaries from the neighbouring markets. "We may try to concentrate, to combine our forces and to do something together rather than setting up separate businesses in each other's market and competing against each other," said Raimundas Kutra, Vilniaus Banka's deputy board chairman.The banks signed a three-way strategic cooperation agreement last March, and now have a common investor Sweden's SEB bank. Kutra said Vilniaus Bankas might withdraw its subsidiary, VB Financial Markets, from the Latvian market. There is no sense in competing since the banks form a group, Kutra said.

MICROSOFT CHOOSES A LATVIAN PARTNER: Latvia's Fortek computer company became Microsoft's partner and certified solutions supplier in 1999. Haralds Burkovskis of Fortek said "This is the highest level of cooperation to which Microsoft is promoting solution suppliers of highest qualifications." The new Fortek's status means that both companies will have closer cooperation in solving marketing, service and output issues. Fortek will hold seminars about the latest technologies and development of new products on a regular basis in the future.

NEW SAKU BEER BOTTLES BRING LUCK: The sale of Estonia's most popular brand of beer, Saku Originaal, grew by 32 percent to 15 million liters last year. Ruth Roht, information manager at the Saku Olletehas brewery, said the company attributes the increase to the new bottles it began using last spring and successful sales campaigns. Saku Originaal sold very well from May through October, she observed. The sale of bottled Saku Originaal jumped 36 percent. The brewery last year exported approximately 1.2 million liters of the top-selling beer, mostly to Finland, Latvia and the United States.

U.S. COMPANY EYES LITHUANIAN AIRPORT: The major U.S. military supplier Executive JetPort plans to invest in the Siauliai free economic zone. The company said it wants to build a plant for repairs and technical maintenance of transport and passenger aircraft in the Zokniai airport, situated in the free economic zone's territory. The Lithuanian Defence Ministry, however, also has plans for the territory picked by the U.S. investor."A decision on its construction may be adopted during a meeting with Executive JetPort's President Tom Patterson," said Siauliai Mayor Alfredas Lankauskas. The American company is ready to invest $31.2 million into the plant.

TRUSTBUSTING TEXTILE MILL: The Narva-based Kreenholmi Valduse textile mill wants to buy a power plant in Russia to avoid a monopoly by Eesti Energia. Meelis Virkebau, the company's director general, said the textile mill pays about 60 million kroons ($4.5 million) a year for its electricity, and now it is looking into ways of cutting the costs. The company looked thoroughly into the possibility of buying Russia's Narva hydroelectric power station, but no deal was signed as Russia said the plant is strategically important. Kreenholm could buy electric power from Russia, but for this it will have to get a license from the energy market inspectorate. "We have received no such license so far," Virkebau said.

LATVIAN COMPANY, RUSSIAN GAS: The gas company Latvijas Gaze and Russia's Gazprom have coordinated terms of the natural gas supplies contract for 1999. Janis Slava, head of the Latvijas Gaze council, said the contract could be signed before the end of January. In 1997, Latvijas Gaze earned a profit of 1.4 million lats ($2.46 million) on a turnover of 87.6 million lats. The company hopes its 1998 results will reach the previous year's level.