OREANDA-NEWS. On November 26, 2008 Ukio bankas became winner in the nomination "Fastest Growing Company of the Year" of the competition "The Best Business Bees 2008" organised by the Lithuanian Business Employers’ Confederation. The competition was open for Lithuania’s companies producing Lithuanian products or providing services, reported the press-centre of Ukio bankas.

The competition "The Best Business Bees 2008" was aimed at evaluating the best business representatives, encouraging all national manufacturers to seek better performance, introduce innovations and advanced technologies, quality and management systems as well as increase exports.

Apart from nomination "Fastest Growing Company of the Year", the participants competed for another two nominations, "Activities Modernisation Leader" and "The Most Successful Start".

"Ukio bankas achievement in this kind of competition is in the first place the achievement of all the Bank’s clients and employees. I am grateful to the Bank’s clients and, certainly, to our staff who helped attain the results that led to earning the award," said Edita Karpaviciene, chairwoman of Ukio bankas Board.

"When evaluating the competitors, we took account not only of financial and other results for the previous year but also of the today’s situation which has significantly changed. The fact that, despite difficult economic conditions, Ukio bankas demonstrates good financial indicators and managed to repay loans, worth LTL 214 million, shows that the Bank has chosen a correct development strategy providing positive results even in the face of crisis," said Danas Arlauskas, director general of the Lithuanian Business Employers’ Confederation.

The competition "The Best Business Bees 2008" assessed a ratio of Lithuanian companies’ sales volumes of products or services to the average annual number of employees, the number of jobs created in a year, a ratio of profit to sales volumes of products or services, and a ratio of profit to the average annual number of employees. Other issues assessed included the number of years a company operates and amounts of investments in new technologies, products and services.

Ukio bankas consolidated unaudited net profit for nine months of 2008 amounts to LTL 83.8 million (EUR 24.3 million) showing a 36 percent increase compared to the same period of the last year when the net profit earned totalled LTL 61.5 million (EUR 17.8 million).