Company briefs - 2003-11-06

  • 2003-11-06
Iki and Hansabankas have installed new software in 66 outlets in Lithuania to accelerate service for clients who pay with bankcards. "We hope that this project will help accelerate payment with bank cards and reduce the number of cases when cards cannot be used due to system failures," said Aidas Mackevicius, the Iki chain's finance director.

Profitability of the mobile phone operator LMT increased significantly over the nine months of 2003, according to the company. Net profit for the period amounted to 32.7 million lats (50 million euros), or only by 2.1 million lats less than the company's record profit for the entire 2002 year. In the third quarter the company earned 11.5 million lats, 33 percent more than during the same period of 2002.

The leading Lithuanian retailer VP Market has started exploring the Ukrainian market and may enter it in 2004. Director of VP Market Latvia Gintaras Marcinkevicius visited the country last month to study the local retail market. "We are not investing in the Ukraine but we are analyzing the market and exploring it. The market is empty and there is no competition," Marcinkevicius said. However, he said the legal basis was unfavorable and contradictory, and there were no clear provisions about purchase of real estate by foreign persons.

In an interview last week Leif Ostling, managing director of Scania, said that the Swedish government should allow workers to be brought in from the Baltics and Poland. Ostling said that Scania had no plans to transfer its production away from Sweden, and that Sweden should allow companies to bring in workers from low-cost East European countries, explaining that the current economic policy in Sweden was not working and that rapid structural reforms are required. "If Swedish politicians were bold enough they should take advantage of the opportunities offered by enlargement and allow workers to be imported from the Baltics and Poland," he said. "There are very many people who are prepared to work hard and are not so pampered as Swedes," said Ostling.

Hugo Boss has authorized Kerri Ulp, the former head of security at Stockmann Department Stores in Tallinn, to sell Hugo Boss clothing in Estonia. Ulp, who owns Versus Invest, which represents Hugo Boss and Joop brands in Estonia, was allegedly fired by Stockmann, another Hugo Boss agent, when the store learned that he had secretly begun talks with Hugo Boss.

AS Connecto, a subsidiary of Elion Enterprises (former Estonian Telephone) has acquired all the shares in Eltel Networks AS, a subsidiary of Eltel Networks Corporation, a leading provider of services to network owners in Northern Europe. Eltel Networks specializes in the construction and maintenance of electrical and telecommunication networks. The price of the transaction was 11.5 million kroons (740,000 euros).