Insurer seeking equity finance

  • 2003-04-03
VILNIUS

Lietuvos Draudimas, Lithuania's leading insurance company, is set to increase its authorized capital to 28.2 million litas (8.1 million euros) through the placement of an equity issue worth 5.1 million litas at par.

Lietuvos Draudimas intends to issue 145,600 ordinary registered shares with a face value of 35 litas apiece. The shares would be offered for 160 litas apiece, and the buyer of the new issue would be Denmark's Codan, the insurer's largest shareholder.

Vidmantas Maksimaitis, director of the legal department of Lietuvos Draudimas, said the new issue would be sold to Codan in order to ensure that the Danish company fulfills its obligations regarding investments in Lietuvos Draudimas.

The company's shareholders also approved paying a dividend of 53 litas per share, with total dividends reaching 34.9 million litas. Lietuvos Draudimas did not pay dividends on its 2001 earnings.

In 2002, Lietuvos Draudimas posted an audited net profit of 6.7 million litas, down by 46.8 percent from 12.6 million litas in 2001.

The Danish insurance company Codan owns a 53.1 percent stake in Lietuvos Draudimas. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the Denmark-based Investment Fund for Central and Eastern Europe each hold 21.65 percent of the shares.