Company briefs - 2003-11-06

In one of the biggest raids yet in the Baltics, police stormed the office of the Fenster publisher, home of the Kommersant Baltic newspaper, and confiscated more than 100 computers to check the legality of the software being used at the publishing house.

According to the state police's PR department, the police are specifying the amount and value of the illegal software used by Fenster, which also publishes Vesti, Vesti Segodnja, 7 Sekretov, TV programs and crossword magazines. The publishing house will most likely face not only criminal liability but also double compensation fees, imposed by producers of the respective software, police said.

The former branch of energy utility Kauno Energija, UAB Naujasodzio Energijos Paslaugos, has been slated for privatization. The company has two subdivisions - one of which is the fourth largest peat producer by volume and the other the only producer of heating pipe insulation in Lithuania. Kauno Energija CEO Mindaugas Juozaitis said that the company was advised to separate the noncore businesses from the head company and sell them.

Outgoing chairman of EMT Peep Aaviksoo said in a statement he would not disclose the exact cause for his resignation, saying only the mobile phone operator needed a new chief executive. "The owner is always entitled to replace top executives. This may be the case when the chief executive and the owner have different views on the development of the company and the market. In this case the top manager does as the owner wants."

A Latvian court satisfied a claim of the alcohol producer Latvijas Balzams and forbade the company LION from distributing champagne under the brand name Sovetskoje Sampanskoje. The Riga Regional Court also obligated the LION alcoholic beverages distributor to destroy all the imported production with such deceptive trademarks. At the moment LB owns 305 registered trademarks, 20 of them have been disputed in courts. LION said it would appeal the verdict.

The Estonian-owned department store group Tallinna Kaubamaja reported a 23 percent rise in third-quarter profit to 443 million kroons (28.5 million euros). In nine months the group's consolidated net sales amounted to 1.23 billion kroons, which is 15 percent more than a year ago. Also, the company's third-quarter consolidated profit was up 80 percent to 15.8 million kroons. m The company has 31,960 square meters of sales-floor area, or 18 percent more than last year.