Registration of state-owned company Ventas Osta complete

RIGA - The state-owned joint stock company Ventas Osta was added to the Latvian Registry of Enterprises last Friday, according information available at Firmas.lv.

Baiba Vilipa, director of the Transport Ministry's Development and Financial Planning Department, is the sole member of the new company's management board. 

The company's supervisory board includes Baiba Jirgena, head of the legislative acts section of the Transport Ministry's Legal Department, Diana Rancane, head of the EU Funds Monitoring Department of the Ministry of Finance, Daina Sirlaka, a former board member of Olainfarm pharmaceutical company, and Iveta Zalpetere, a former board chairperson of Public Asset Management Possessor (formerly Privatization Agency). 

Ventas Osta has a share capital of EUR 35,000. The company is registered in Riga.

Transport Minister Talis Linkaits (New Conservative Party, JKP) told LETA earlier that the decision to establish Ventas Osta was a step towards a new port management model.

The minister also said that decisions about delegating functions of the Freeport of Riga Authority to Ventas Osta will be taken next year.

As reported, the US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) on December 9 imposed sanctions on a number of natural and legal persons in Europe, Asia and Latin America, including on Latvia's Ventspils mayor Aivars Lembergs, based on the so-called Magnitsky act.

OFAC listed four organizations that belong to or are controlled by Lembergs - Ventspils Freeport Administration, Ventspils Development Agency, Business Development Agency, and the Latvian Transport Business Association.

To deal with Lembergs' influence in the Freeport of Ventspils, the government decided to take over the ports of Ventspils and Riga and to establish a state-owned company to manage the port's operations.

The Freeport of Ventspils Authority has since been removed from the list of entities sanctioned by OFAC.