Word: tallinn
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...huge automobile ferry had left its home port in Tallinn, Estonia, on a routine 15-hour trip to Stockholm. Although the weather had been stormy all night, the crew did not expect serious problems. A band was playing in the Baltic Bar, and the 10-deck vessel churned through the inky waters as it had for 14 years...
...more threatening development: the re-emergence of the battle for Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, the Baltics - the whole former Soviet space. While Europe sleeps, he suggests, Moscow's secret police are infiltrating foreign governments, establishing a transcontinental energy monopoly and exploiting divisions between Paris, Berlin, Warsaw and Tallinn. Exacerbating all of the above is the fact that no one is doing much to counter this angry, revanchist Russia...
...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. You can't overestimate their role," says Hansabank's ceo, Erkki Raasuke, a 36-year-old Estonian. The feeling is mutual: Hansabank generated 27% of Swedbank...
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...
Raasuke predicts that the area's integration 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...