The board and council of the JSC Latvijas kuģniecība (Latvian Shipping Company-LASCO) have given their approval to the company’s real estate investment development Strategy for the period between 2009 and 2014. The Strategy defines three main goals related to the management of investments – maximum revenue from investments, creation of maximum added value, and maximally advantageous sale of investments as the situation in the real estate market stabilises.

SIA LASCO Investment that manages the real estate investments of the Latvian Shipping Company concern drafted the document. It says that the strategy must ensure effective management and governance of investments, creating maximal added value for shareholders. Given that the real estate portfolio brings together very different properties, each will have a different management and development mode, always aimed at increasing the value of the specific property so as to ensure as high a return as possible on the sale of investments when the situation in the real estate market stabilizes.

When it comes to the strategy for developing real estate investments, agreement has already been reached on the sale of the Karavella Hotel to SIA Arsenāls. Latvian Shipping Company has owned the hotel since 1981. The decision to sell the investment to a professional hotelier was based on the current condition of the property, the substantial investments that would be needed to develop it further, and the fact that the hotel administration and management is not one of the core activities of the Latvian Shipping Company concern. This will also allow the company to concentrate on the more effective management of the rest of the investment portfolio.

“Investments in real estate are profitable and justified from the long term perspective, if we compare them to investments in other types of assets. Ours is a diversified investment portfolio, with objects that are at a high level of quality and generate cash flow today, as well as objects with good potential that will ensure a return in future. We devote particular attention to the effective management and governance of real estate, and our basic goal is to increase the value of those properties,” says Raitis Nešpors, LASCO Investment chairman of the board.

SIA LASCO Housing Service is a separate structure in the Latvian Shipping Company concern, and it was set up to ensure effective management of real estate investments. Some services in this area have been outsourced. Optimization of administrative and business costs is part of the process in increasing the profitability of real estate investments.

 Some of the investments are very complicated and have substantial potential for further development, and the new developmental strategic involves bringing in internationally recognized professionals in such sectors as real estate consultation and architecture, the goal being to add as much value to the investments as possible. An international bid for tenders has been launched to find partners for the development of certain Latvian Shipping Company real estate investments.

This is the real estate portfolio of the Latvian Shipping Company concern at this time:
• SIA Darījumu centrs Daugava
• SIA Rīgas līcis
• The building at Elizabetes Street 1 in Riga
• The building at A. Briāna Street 3 in Riga
• The building at Ganību Dambis 10A in Riga
• SIA Ventspils business cente
• SIA Karavella Property
• The building at Talsu Street 75d in Ventspils
• The property “Lejastiezumi”
• The building at Jēkaba Street 30 in Riga

 For more detailed information:
Marita Ozoliņa-Tumanovska
Head of PR & Advertising Department
Telephone +371-6702-0120, 2928-7169
marita.ozolina@lscgroup.lv