Off the wire

  • 2001-01-18
NEW CABLE: Eesti Energia Televork, the telecom unit of the national power company, has announced a public procurement tender for a contractor to design and build a fiber-optic cable at an estimated cost of 100 million kroons ($6.04 million).The cable will be installed on 110 kilovolt transmission lines and the fiber-optic network will extend some 800 kilometers when the project is implemented. Power lines currently carry roughly 200 kilometers of such cables.

MONEY FOR RENOVATION: Hansa Leasing's Estonian operation plans to lend in the next three to five years up to 1 billion kroons to apartment associations in Estonia for renovation work. The leasing company in cooperation with the Estonian Apartment Associations Union will start offering the associations an installment plan against the guarantee of the associations' claims on their members. Eero Saava, development director of Hansa Leasing's parent company Hansa Capital, said that "apartment houses in Estonia require an aggregate investment of 11 billion kroons." He predicted that Hansa Leasing will offer apartment associations 200 million to 300 million kroons in the first year.

RAILWAY PRIVATIZATION CONTESTED: A consortium of Estonian businessmen and the Swedish national rail company RER filed an application with the Tallinn administrative court Jan. 15, contesting the results of bidding for 66 percent of shares in Estonian railway Eesti Raudtee. Rail Estonia won the Estonian railway privatization tender at the end of last year with a $96 million bid.

AID TO FARMING SECTOR: A total of 667.5 million litas ($166.87 million) has been earmarked to support Lithuanian farmers this year, the largest amount allotted to the agricultural sector over the past five years. The earmarked funds include 447.5 million litas in budgetary resources, with the rest expected to come from the European Union's SAPARD funds. A financial memorandum and a long-term agreement are expected to be signed with the EU within a month. Under the program, Lithuania should receive 29.83 million euros in aid for the farming sector annually by 2006.

ELECTRICITY EXPORT: The state-run power utility Lietuvos Energija plans to sign an agreement with the Russian company Inter RAO JES on the export of 5 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity, the daily Lietuvos Rytas reported. The company intends to sell 3.5 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity to Belarus, and 1.5 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity to the Russian Kaliningrad region this year. The settlement for electricity would be made in cash and either the Russian bank Sberbank or Alfa Bank would take on the guarantees. It is expected that the final details of the deal would be discussed during the visit of the Lithuanian Economy Minister Eugenijus Maldeikis to Moscow.

ANOTHER TENDER: Lithuania is likely to announce a tender for an adviser on the privatization of agricultural bank Zemes Ukio Bankas next week in order to complete the sale of the state-owned bank by summer, officials have said. Finance Minister Jonas Lionginas said on Jan. 11 that four to five potential foreign buyers were interested in the privatization of the bank.

NARVESSEN INVESTS: Narvessen Baltija this year will invest some 6 million lats ($9.78 million) into the development of the newsstand chain Preses Apvieniba. One of the main elements of the investment plan is kiosk renovation as well as purchase of 100 new computers for office needs, installment of new cash-registers at the trading facilities and training the staff to operate them.

CHRISTMAS BOOSTED E-COMMERCE: Latvian Internet shops became increasingly popular at the end of last year as people were actively buying Christmas presents. The specialized mobile telephone Internet shop, www.24.lv, which was opened only early in December, had the largest December turnover of some 10,000 lats among Internet shops questioned. The ITirgus Internet shop posted a turnover of 6,000 lats in December, a triple increase over November, and the Delfi Pasaza Internet shop saw its turnover doubled.

NEW BUSES: Riga will by new Ikarus, Mercedes Benz and Neoplan buses for passenger transportation, the City Council's traffic department reported on Jan. 11. At the auction, Hungary's Ikarus Special Coach won the right to supply Riga with 58 new medium-sized or "midi buses." The midi buses are a novelty to be used in late evening hours when there are fewer passengers. Poland's Neoplan Polska and Germany's Mercedes Benz will supply respectively 68 12-meter-long, 72 15-meter-long and 87 18-meter-long brand new buses. Neoplan Polska acquired the right to supply 65 percent of those buses in the first year and Mercedes Benz will deliver 35 percent. Over five years the said companies will deliver to Riga city a total of 285 buses.

CEMENT FLOOD: Under pressure from cheap Belarussian imports, Lithuania's leading cement producer Akmenes Cementas stopped production this week and has asked 700 employees to take an unpaid leave for up to two months. Akmenes Cementas' managers said the company was in a desperate situation. "We have been forced to halt operations because the Lithuanian market has been flooded with cheap Belarussian cement, and we have an overproduction as a result of that. If we continued production, our losses would only mount up," said Pranas Kristopaitis, the company's managing director. The northwestern Lithuanian cement manufacturer made a loss of around 12 million litas in 2000.