Baltic Morning News
TEO (Acc) must not block calls to rival networks. Some time ago, the National Telecommunication Network (NTN) uniting alternative operators of Lithuanian fixed line services appealed against TEO’s actions to the Communications Regulatory Authority, because TEO had blocked calls from its pay phones to the networks of alternative operators. This week, the court has ruled that TEO has no right to block the calls. Now TEO has the right to appeal against the ruling. In larger perspective, whatever the final decision, we do not think this will have significant effect on the share price.
Kalev targeting another media company. According to BBN, there are speculations that the Estonian candy maker Kalev may be interested in acquiring a large magazine publisher Presshouse which publishes ten magazines. Similarly to some other media companies that it has acquired recently, Presshouse is struggling with low profitability and has made a profit only once in its history. This is already the fifth media company during last two months that Kalev has acquired or plans to acquire.
Estonian retailers lost EUR 41m to thieves. According to European Retail Theft Barometer, thefts from retail stores in Estonia amounted to EUR 41m (EEK 640m) last year, which is ca 1.3% of the total annual sales (EUR 3.1b). In 2005, the thieves took away ca 1.2% of total sales.
Internet booming in Latvia. During last year, the number of Lattelecom’s (Not listed) permanent internet connections increased 55% to 106,600. Lattelecom started offering permanent internet connections already in 2000, but the service really took off in 2005, when the company launched its “Home Set” package, which allows clients to install Internet services at home by themselves. This way, Latvia is quite similar to Lithuania, where internet connections is also one of the main growth segments for Lithuanian telecom operator TEO (Acc).
75,000 households capable of taking loan. According to Estonian banks, then there must be at least 75,000 more households capable of taking a housing loan. To remind, two years ago the banks said there were ca 50,000 such households. Hence, according to the banks, the situation is following – during the last years, huge amount of households have taken housing loan but despite that, the number of people who are capable of taking the loan is still increasing.
Credit loans reaching EU average level. According to Estonian Central Bank, the total volume of outstanding consumer loans in Estonia climbed from EEK 4.6b to more than EEK 8b in a year at the end of 2006. When including also car lease the total outstanding consumer credit amounted to EEK 12b, which is equal to 6% of the GDP. The corresponding ratio in the eurozone is 6.9%, i.e. Estonia very close to it.
