In February Latvian capital market turnover amounted to EUR 88.04 million. Equity trading volume was EUR 1.91 million, noticeably surpassed by debt trading, which contributed 86.13 million. Equity market capitalisation at the end of the month reached LVL 363.43 million (EUR 641.75 million); total value of debt securities was EUR 585.79 million. Dow Jones RSE index slightly depreciated (by -0.36%) since end of January, while RICI lost 2.76% of its end of January closing value.
As a consequence of shifts between lists, at the end of February the Riga Stock Exchange had altogether 64 listed companies Π7 on the Official List, 11 on the Second List and 46 on the Free List.
On February 28, 2001 in Copenhagen, Danish Insurance Company Codan and an Investment Fund New Century Holdings (USA) and Bastions ZS, majority shareholders of Balta, signed an agreement regarding sales of 73.5% of Balta shares. The transaction is expected to be finalised on June 1 2001, and the agreed share price is LVL 4.50, which is 7% over the market price at the agreement date.
At the end of February Unibanka requested a delisting from the exchange, and it will become effective from March 13. This was already expected to happen after Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken buy-back deal, completed in November and resulting in 98.2% ownership in Unibanka. Consequently, Unibanka will be deleted from both RICI and Dow Jones RSE index composition and delisted from the Baltic List.
On February 22, the RSE was involved in the Shadow Day organised by Junior Achievement Latvia. Six RSE staff members were “shadowed” by secondary school students coming from different regions of Latvia, prevailingly from classes majoring in economics. The follow-ups of the day back at each school will contribute to public awareness about the Riga Stock Exchange day-to-day business.
Tallinn
HEX Group (HEX) of Finland and TSE are entering into strategic co-operation, which will include ownership as well as operational aspects. The aim of the co-operation is to build a well-functioning securities market in Estonia and to significantly increase the visibility of Estonian companies and liquidity of the market. The co-operation will be based on HEX™s offer to acquire over 50% in TSE. Operationally HEX offers TSE a trading system under a facilities management (FM) arrangement, thereby extending HEX™s network to Estonia. Creating a much larger home market will increase turnover and significantly enhance liquidity. International investors will gain easy access to Estonian securities.
As before, trading will be regulated by Estonian laws and clearing and settlement will take place at the ECDS, a subsidiary of TSE. Likewise, market activity will be supervised by TSE. In order to facilitate cross border clearing, preparations will begin for a link co-operation between ECDS and the Finnish Central Securities Depository, a subsidiary of HEX.
According to the preliminary estimates of Statistics Office the economic growth in Estonia was 5.9% in the Q4 of 2000, as compared to Q4 1999. For year 2000 the GDP growth is estimated at 6.4% in Estonia.
Hansabank Group™s strategic shareholder Swedbank and SEB, the owner of Eesti Ühispank, announced that they have agreed to merge. The merging entities have not made any strategic decisions regarding their Baltic subsidiaries yet. The central bank has ruled out the possibility of merging the two Estonian banks due to competition issues.
Hansabank Group™s consolidated 2000 net profit was EEK 1.29 billion (EUR 83 million) compared to EEK 815 million (EUR 52 million) a year ago. Hansapank will propose its AGM to pay dividends EEK 1 (EUR 0.06) per share. Estonian Telecom™s consolidated 2000 net profit amounted to EEK 1.176 billion (EUR 75 million). The telecom firm had a net profit of EEK 580 million (EUR 37 million) in 1999.
Vilnius
Shares of Ekranas were admitted to the Official Trading List of the Stock Exchange from 1 March 2001. Currently, this manufacturer of electronics components is one of the most profitably operating companies in Lithuania. At the end of the month, the company™s capitalisation equalled LTL 272 million (EUR 74 million), which placed Ekranas in the sixth position in terms of capitalisation among the companies listed on the NSEL. From 1 January 2001, shares of Ekranas were included into LITIN-10, equity index of the most liquid shares.
In February, the market calmed down after the active trading which was observed at the beginning of the year. Although LITINŒ10, the index reflecting price dynamics of the most liquid companies, lifted by 0.97%, the capitalised index of the market LITIN-G decreased by 3.32%. This month, the most active trading was carried out in shares of Lietuvos Jûrø Laivininkystë. LISCO shares grew by 23.3%, to LTL 3.70. Such a revival of trading may be associated with the development of the company™s privatisation since the Danish company DFDS does not reject the possibility to buy up LISCO shares from small shareholders if the negotiations on privatisation end up successfully.
On 21 February, the Scandinavian concern Baltic Beverages Holding (BBH) officially announced its decision to sell an 86.6% share block of Kalnapilis in order to satisfy the requirements of the Competition Council. If a new owner acquires over 50% of the brewery™s shares, a mandatory tender offer to buy up shares of small shareholders is to be announced. The share price was over LTL 5.00, however, after several sessions it dropped to LTL 4.52, the price level which was observed before the announcement of this decision.
