Word: swedbank
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...global credit crunch and economic downturn, the Baltics are now leading Europe into recession. By some estimates, Estonia's economy may already be shrinking. "There's an Estonian saying: Every party ends in tears," says Maris Lauri, an economist at Hansabank, a subsidiary of Sweden's Swedbank...
That's a question being raised in other parts of Eastern Europe these days, too. By one estimate, net banking flows into the region, most of them originating in Western Europe, will fall from $219 billion in 2007 to just $74 billion next year. Sweden's Swedbank, which not long ago earned a fifth of its profits from the Baltic region, has seen its stock price halve in the past year over fears of exposure to bad loans, and on Oct. 27 it announced a $1.5 billion rights issue to bolster its finances. Two days later Austria's Erste Bank...
...investment between the Baltic Sea nations has been crucial too, now comprising one quarter of the region's investment flows. And the financial superpower within the Baltic Sea is undoubtedly Sweden, accounting for 60% of that regional investment. Two years ago, for example, Sweden's fourth largest bank, Swedbank, completed a $2.6 billion takeover of the Hansabank Group, the Baltics' biggest bank, whose distinctive sea-green and orange Viking ship logo can be found from Tallinn to Vilnius. The marriage has worked out well so far. "We have been very, very happy about this interest from the Nordic countries...
Raasuke says his bank's experience with Swedbank is a good illustration of how Baltic Sea countries can work together. As a young banker in Tallinn, his first contact with the outside world after his country gained independence from Moscow in 1991 was with Finns and Swedes. They were ready to offer young bankers, new to capitalism, advice on how to organize such things as international payments. "Here were these tiny nations splitting off from the Soviet Union and we needed help," says Raasuke. Later, he adds, his bank needed equity following the Russian ruble crisis...
...will only intensify. Many companies, including his own, already treat Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania as a single market. And close investment ties have already bred closer trade and cultural ties. A decade ago, there was just one flight a day between Tallinn and Stockholm. Now there are six. At Swedbank, half the staff is currently based in the Baltic states or Russia. Such connections have helped drive Sweden's own growth and bolstered its ability to compete on a global stage. When New York City-based nasdaq launched a bid to acquire Sweden's omx in late May, part...
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