Owner of Estonia's ETA decides to liquidate

TALLINN (BNS) - Owner of the news agency Eesti Teadeteagentuur, to
which the former public ETA news agency belongs, decided to liquidate
the troubled company because of a negative equity and lack of an
investor.

The decision was taken by Eesti Teadeteagentuur supervisory council
on June 30, as no agreement on increasing the equity was reached with
any investor, ETA reported on June 30.

Liquidation of the agency's former owner was caused by poor economic
results for 1999, when the company made a loss of 10.1 million kroons
($618,000) at 5.9 million kroons of net sales.

The company's equity became negative as a result of the high losses,
and in accordance with the commercial code Eesti Teadeteagentuur
would have had to invest 8.8 million kroons in the company by June 30
in order to continue operations.

Although tax-ridden Eesti Teadeteagentuur will be liquidated, the
news agency ETA continues to operate in the ownership of ETA
Interactive, a company set up last summer.

Owners of ETA Interactive are Estonian and Latvian individuals, whose
names the company refuses to disclose. Eesti Teadeteagentuur owes the
taxation department 4.4 million kroons, including arrears, and the
agency's assets comprise mostly antiquated office machines.