Investments, Latvia, Legislation, Markets and Companies, Mergers and take-overs

"UP Invest has a long term view of the Baltic media market and sees the acquisition as an important step in its strategy," said Sven Nuutmann, Member of the Management Board of UP Invest. The brands of BNS and LETA will be both continuously used in Latvia, he added.

New investments and market consolidation will further improve the quality of services offered to professional users of information and news in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

"LETA customers can be certain that the established quality standards will be kept and supported. It is good that LETA has been acquired by an investor with international reach. This will guarantee strong long term position of our news and media monitoring services," said Una Klapkalne, Member of the Management Board of LETA.

LETA will stay independent of other UP Invest related Latvian media companies.

The current LETA Chairman of the Board Martins Barkans commented: "In eighteen years since the privatization of LETA and renewal of the agency's operations, we have succeeded in restoring the agency's historical status and making it a professional provider of information services to Latvian media, government institutions, and the leading Latvian companies. We have attained the goals we set ourselves eighteen years ago, and now a very important period in our business has come to a close. We are happy with what we have achieved, and we thank the LETA team, our clients and cooperation partners for good work. We see UP Invest as a dependable and professional media investor with a long-term business strategy, and we are confident that successful development of LETA will continue."

The previous owners of LETA will continue their business and investments in Latvia, including in the media sector, by issuing the business magazine "Kapitals" and organizing business management seminars and conferences under the "BIG EVENT" brand. "We wish to continue to inform the public and government sector about the importance of entrepreneurship in national development," commented Barkans.

The transaction has to be approved by the Latvian competition authorities.

The price of the transaction will not be disclosed.

The information agency LETA offers news and business information solutions to organizations and companies. LETA was established in 1992, but the agency's history goes back to 1919. Among the agency's clients are the largest business, media and state institutions and organizations, as well as embassies and international companies. In 2014 LETA had 158 employees, the company’s turnover amounted to EUR 3,087,968 and profit to EUR 9,714.

UP Invest is an investment company that has holdings in media, retail, IT and technology sectors. The company is fully owned by Margus Linnamae.