Baltic, Financial Services, Investments, Markets and Companies

The Baltic economies will be some of the fastest growing in the 27-member European Union this year, with Lithuania's gross domestic product seen expanding 3.3%, Estonia's economy growing 2.7%, and Latvia's 2%, Marek Randma, the head of Baltic equity research at the Stockholm-based bank, told journalists in Tallinn yesterday.

Baltic companies, which trade at their book value, will probably report gross profit margins of 34% this year after divesting less profitable businesses, Randma said, based on the median estimate for 17 listed Baltic companies covered by Swedbank. The ratio of net debt to earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization was 0.5 at the end of last year, while return on equity was at 13%, the highest level since 2008, informs LETA/Bloomberg.

The Nasdaq OMX Tallinn index declined 24% last year, while Lithuanian stocks lost 27% and Latvian equity market declined 4%, in line with a 23% fall for the MSCI Eastern Europe index. The markets are at about half of their peak levels hit in 2007.