Swedish-owned IKEA Group has received permission from the Estonian Competition Authority (Konkurentsiamet) to acquire 18,000 hectares of forest from Swedish-owned Södra Forest Estonia, ERR reports. Under the deal, IKEA Group’s subsidiary, Ingka Investments, will buy Södra’s forests in Estonia and Latvia for EUR 720mn. Latvia’s Competition Council has received notification of the deal. Södra owns…
The most loved brand in the Baltic States is the Swedish banking group, Swedbank, according to the Baltic Brand Forum 2025 survey, The Baltic Times reports. Lithuanian supermarket chain Maxima ranked second, followed by Estonia’s state-owned logistics group, Omniva, and German supermarket chain Lidl. The top four ranking remained unchanged from 2024. US technology company…
The combined revenues of Estonia’s three largest telecommunications service providers dropped to around EUR 671mn in 2024, ERR reports. Estonia’s leading telecommunications company, Swedish-owned Telia, reported an annual turnover of EUR 359.7mn, which was down 0.4% from 2023. Finnish-owned Elisa’s turnover fell by 1.2% to EUR 223mn in 2024. Swedish-owned TELE2’s turnover amounted to an…
The Investment and Development Agency of Latvia (LIAA) helped attract 45 foreign investment projects, which will create an estimated 2,023 new jobs, in 2024, LSM reports. The total value of the projects is EUR 655.4mn, which is up 6% from 2023. The biggest investments were in high-value-added manufacturing, ICT, energy, and aviation. LIAA’s target is…
An anchor belonging to the Russian “shadow fleet” oil tanker, Eagle S, which is suspected of damaging several undersea cables in the Baltic Sea, has been retrieved from the seabed, YLE reports. The anchor was raised by the Swedish Navy’s submarine rescue ship, Belos. Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation (KRP) will now begin analysing the…
Estonian shipping company Tallink Grupp carried a total of 5,580,016 passengers in 2024, which was down 2.2% from 5,705,600 in 2023, ERR reports. The number of passengers increased by 2.5% on the route between Estonia and Finland and 8% on the routes between Estonia and Sweden, but decreased by 15.4% on the routes between Finland…
Latvia’s national airline, airBaltic, has announced that it will cancel flights on 19 routes and reduce flights on 21 routes in summer 2025 due to engine maintenance, LSM reports. The company will cancel flights from Riga to Aberdeen, Belgrade, Cluj-Napoca, Gothenburg, Mykonos, Pristina, Rzeszów, Skopje, Stavanger, and Yerevan. Also, the company will cancel flights from…
Lithuania has stepped up monitoring of the NordBalt power cable linking Lithuania and Sweden, Energy Minister Zygimantas Vaiciunas announced, ELTA reports. Speaking in an interview with Ziniu Radijas, Vaiciunas noted that the undersea power interconnection was very important for Lithuania’s electricity market. He stressed that the response to acts of sabotage on critical infrastructure should…
Estonia’s exports of services totalled EUR 3.2bn in the third quarter of 2024, which was up 8% from the same period of 2023, according to data from Statistics Estonia and the Bank of Estonia, ERR reports. Imports of services into Estonia totalled EUR 2.4bn, which was up 2% over a year. Estonia’s trade surplus in…