Japanies acquire Latvian port operator

Japanese conglomerate Mitsui & Co, Ltd has acquired an 80% share in the Latvian port operator SIA Rigas Universalais Terminals (RUT), reported news2biz LATVIA.

The sale was carried out through Mitsui’s subsidiary Portek International Pte, and the sum of the deal reached EUR 21m.

RUT is a multi-purpose terminal operating at the Freeport of Riga, which is the busiest port in Latvia. In particular, Mitsui stresses that the port accounts for 70% of Latvian exports of wood products, such as lumber, furniture, wood pellets and wood chips; timber traditionally is the strongest Latvian export.

Mitsui sees Latvia and Riga as a springboard to the Eastern European market. Latvia has railway connections to Russia and Belarus and, through them, to CIS countries such as Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

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Estonia best European country to invest

According to the ranking by Baseline Profitability Index (BPI), published in Foreign Policy, Estonia is the world’s 12th most attractive country for investment, and the first in Europe, writes news2biz ESTONIA.

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Italian electronic navigation company opens R&D center in Estonia

Navionics, an Italian-based developer and manufacturer of electronic navigation charts and systems, has opened a research and development center in Estonia.

Founder and president of the company, Giuseppe Carnevali, said that his group chose Estonia after comparing all three Baltic states. Estonia was selected due to more its favorable tax and labor legislation, low level of corruption and a balance between labor costs and the cost of living.

Enterprise Estonia was involved with attracting the company to Estonia.

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Investors sue Estonian real estate developer over Moroccon project

Spanish company Property Logic behind which is Estonian businessman Margus Reinsalu and that was developing a luxury real estate project in Morocco has been sued by about 50 foreign investors, writes Eesti Ekspress.

Property Logic is developing Le Jardin de Fleur, a luxury residential development for 1,250 housing units in Saidia, a Moroccon resort on the Mediterranean beach in Morocco.

Investeors claim that the project which raised about 60 million euros in prepayment is stalled and fear that they could lose their investment.

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Foreigners own less than 3 pct of housing in Estonia

According to the 2011 census report, foreigners own 2.3% of housing in Estonia, writes Eesti Päevaleht.

By regions, the highest percentage of foreign-owned housing units are in Narva-Jõesuu, the resort in Northeast Estonia where foreigners, mainly Russians, own 240 housing units or 12.8%.

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Secretive Swede becomes Estonia’s largest forest owner

Swedish businessman Jonas Wahlström is now the largest private forest owner in Estonia and now owns about 23,000 hectares of land, mainly forest, in Estonia, writes Äripäev.

Wahlström has been buying land in Estonia for about a decade, but is extremely secretive about his business and does not say what is his purpose.

Wahlström who is known in Sweden as a supersecretive businessmen and now lives in an undisclosed location in Southern Europe told Dagens Industri that he forecast a rapid rise in the price of land and forest. „It was in 1987 and since then I have been investing in land,” he said.

Metsnik is now the largest landowner on Saaremaa island. One reason why local residents of Saaremaa are worried is the fact that in 2010 the local newspaper Saare Hääl wrote that Swedish company Ekovind AB planned to put up wind farms on forest and agricultural land of Metsnik.

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State to aid foreign investors to move back-office jobs to Estonia

Estonian minister of economic affairs Juhan Parts last week announced a new government incentive aimed at motivating large foreign manufacturers to move their back-office jobs such as accounting, personnel work, IT and financial services to Estonia, writes Äripäev.

According to Parts, many international enterprises at present are consolidating and outsourcing their support services.

“We have a good-quality labour market, business-friendly tax environment and a Nordic business culture,” said Parts.

The state is offering a support measure for foreign service and industrial enterprises to cover up to 50% of eligible costs of procurement of the necessary fixed assets, hiring and training of employees, for instance, in language studies.

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Estonia 40th in terms of attractiveness for venture capital

Estonia is ranked 40th among 116 nations on the scoreboard of the IESE Business School of Spain ranking countries by their attractiveness to venture capital in 2012. Estonia improved its scores in two sub-categories: economic activity, and investor protection and corporate governance, rising from 64th place to 65th in the former and from 25th to 24th in the latter.

The top 10 this year was made up of the United States, Canada, Britain, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, Sweden, Germany and Switzerland.

In the survey, IESE Business School groups the articles that are vital for private equity and venture capital investors in making investment decisions into six sub-chapters: economic activity, depth of the capital market, taxation, investor protection and corporate governance, human and social environment, and entrepreneurial culture and deal opportunities.

Source: Estonian Review

Enterprise Estonia brought 27 foreign investment projects to Estonia

Of the approximately 50 large foreign investment projects carried out in Estonia during 2011, 27 were executed with help from Enterprise Estonia’s globalisation division, Enterprise Estonia said on Wednesday.

Foreign investments made during 2011 amounted to roughly 600 million euros and an estimated 2 200 jobs were or will be created as a result of the investments. Investments made with support from Enterprise Estonia totalled close to 210 million euros and they involve the creation of approximately 1 410 jobs.

Of the projects supported by Enterprise Estonia, 20 were new investments and seven were enlargements of companies that were already active in Estonia. Of the 27 projects 17 were investments in industry, three in business services, and two in R&D and logistics. Most of the projects in industry were carried out by companies active in mechanical engineering and metals, as well as electronics. The main countries of origin of the investment made with Enterprise Estonia’s help were Finland, Spain, Germany, Russia and Norway.

“Almost half of the foreign investments came from Finland. Most of the investments that we advised were made in Tallinn and Harju County, but there were also individual projects in East-Viru County, Saare County, and Pärnu County,” Enterprise Estonia board member Maria Alajõe said.

It is predominantly companies from the Nordic countries and large Western European countries that invest in Estonia. According to Enterprise Estonia, there were two striking trends last year. “While companies from the Nordic countries prefer Estonia because of lower costs, companies from Western Europe gain access through their activity here to the Nordic and Russian markets. Estonia’s balanced state budget and stable economic policy, which have become important factors in the making of investment decisions, are adding to their feeling of confidence,” Alajõe said.

Source: Estonian Review

 

Three companies interested in taking over the Tallinn plant of Elcoteq

In addition to French electronics manufacturer Eolane, also two other companies are considering a bid for Elcoteq Tallin, a subsidiary of the bankrupt Finnish electronics assembly group Elcoteq SE.

Jan Kotka, CEO of Elcoteq Tallinn, said that sales negotiations were ongoing with all three companies, but declined to name the other two because they were listed companies.

Kotka said that the Luxembourg-based bankruptcy administrator of Elcoteq SE had told him that the sale of Elcoteq Tallinn could be closed already in January.

Annual revenues of Elcoteq Tallinn were 4.6 million euros in 2010 and the company made a profit of 136,000 euros.

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