OREANDA-NEWS. November 19, 2010. Latvenergo Group has already been announced, for the second year in a row, as the most valuable company in Latvia. The enterprise value of the company is 1.0207 billion lats, which is 17.15% more than in 2009 when the value of the energy company was estimated at 871.3 million lats. This assessment was made in the most recent study of Latvia’s most valuable companies TOP 101 which has been prepared already for five years by the investment banking company “IBS Prudentia”, “NASDAQ OMX Riga” exchange and business idea magazine “Kapitals”.

In total more than 300 Latvian companies were assessed by appraising their enterprise value which is important for the national economy. Based on the calculations made by IBS Prudentia partner Karlis Krastins the total value of companies who made it into the TOP has decreased only by 5% and amounts to 7.2 billion lats.

“Although the concept of “competitiveness” may sometimes sound rather cliche, during my work in the Cabinet I would like to fill it with real content when speaking about Latvian companies because we do not possess extensive resources or markets like big countries. We must therefore be able to create high added value for our goods and services,” said Minister for Economics Artis Kampars at the presentation of the award.

The minister awarded the national capital award to Latvenergo AS board member Uldis Bariss wishing for the company to continue its development and become the leading energy company in the Baltic region.

Upon receiving the award Latvenergo AS board member Uldis Bariss thanked the makers of the study for the high assessment and stressed that the award bears witness to our ability to increase the company’s value. “Latvenergo Group faces significant changes because up to now the liberalization of the energy market was primarily in the corporate sector, however in the future households will also become market actors. The Latvian market is not big enough to ensure sustainable development, therefore in the next years we will participate in the integration of the Baltic market, to become an important company in the region by doubling our market share in Lithuania and Estonia,” said Uldis Bariss and once more thanked the organizers of the national capital award on behalf of all employees of Latvenergo.

This TOP is important and different from other tops in several aspects. Firstly, in the TOP companies are not arranged on the basis of one individual financial indicator, such as turnover or profit. To reflect the enterprise value of companies, in addition to analyzing their financial results the assessment used the method of relative multiples as of 30.08.2010. This allowed co Latvian companies in the context of similar European companies thus providing for a more topical assessment reflecting the value of a company at the moment of drafting the TOP.

Together with an assessment of financial reports each company of this TOP also received an evaluation of its corporate governance, which describes the overall transparency level of the company, availability of information to its shareholders, as well as other factors and risks. This part of the assessment was performed by “NASDAQ OMX Riga” exchange using a methodology which was tailor made for the TOP.

The most valuable company - winner of the first place - will receive the “National Capital Award 2010” - a bronze impression of the hand of a representative of the company’s management, which, like in previous years, will be made by artist Aivars Vilipsons.