Company briefs - 2004-02-19

The city of Vilnius announced that it was set to sell its main administrative building on Gedimino Avenue for 45.5 million litas (13.2 million euros) to an undisclosed foreign buyer.

The offer, one of two in the auction, was 1.5 million litas over the asking price. Vilnius municipal authorities are preparing to move into the new 70 million litas complex on the right bank of the Neris River.

Saku Brewery has invested 23 million kroons (1.5 million euros) in PET product-filling equipment to expand its market share of plastic-packaged beverages. Total line capacity after the expansion, which will fill bottles, cans and kegs, will be over 7,000 bottles per hour. Saku Brewery had a 43 percent share of the beer market in 2003 and has expanded into the kvas and soft-drink markets.

TV-tube manufacturer Ekranas increased its share of the European market for small and medium TV screens in the final quarter of 2003 to 34 percent and 21 percent respectively. 2003 sales amounted to 465 million litas (135 million euros), up 10.2 percent year-on-year, a record for the company. Last year, Ekranas sold 4.3 million television screens, 34 percent more than in 2002.

Neste Latvija is likely to sue the Latvian government in international arbitration for $22 million, head of the company's terminal Arta Jemsena (see photo) said last week. The company lost 1 million lats (1.5 million euros) in an arbitration dispute with Riga Free Port, which is equal to what it has invested in the terminal and infrastructure at Riga Free Port. The port won a dispute with Neste worth 1 million lats for failing to handle the volume of oil products pursuant to the rental contract.

The Lithuanian government has said it would not appeal a $12.5 million compensation package it has been ordered to pay Svenska Petroleum Exploration by a Copenhagen arbitration court. Prime Minister Algirdas Brazauskas said it was a major defeat for the state, and that after discussing all options lawyers decided it was pointless to continue litigating over the claim.

The supervisory council of Eesti Energia has decided to seek a 15 percent rise in the average price of electricity that would bring it extra revenues of 650 million kroons (41.5 million euros) per year. Eesti Energia can submit an application for raising electricity tariffs after the council has given the price rise plan its final approval, after which the market regulator can give its consent. The company's current base tariff is 1.05 kroons per kilowatt-hour to which a monthly fee of 5 kroons is added. The additional funds will not cover the firm's investment requirements, but they will increase its capacity to borrow, they added.

After three years of haggling, the Mazeikiu Nafta oil company reimbursed Latvia for losses incurred due to the oil spill at the Butinge crude terminal on March 6, 2001. In accordance to the treaty with the Latvian Marine Environment Board, Mazeikiu Nafta transferred some 108,000 litas (31,300 euros) to Latvia this week. Some 2.94 tons of crude were spilled into the Baltic Sea at the Butinge terminal in the vicinity to the Lithuanian-Latvian border.