Today  LASCO  102  million or 51% share auction was run successfully at

the  Riga  Stock  Exchange.  All the shares put out for sale were sold,

and  the  auction  volume  is  LVL  35.7  million.  On the basis of all

submitted  bids,  the calculated LASCO share price is LVL 0.35. Latvian

residents have bought 61.43% of the offered shares, while international

investors  -  38.57%.  All the results still need to be approved by the

Privatisation Agency Management Board.



The  cash offering of 51% of LASCO shares in domestic and international

market was organised by a consortium headed by the Riga Stock Exchange,

and  incorporating  Suprema  , an investment service providing company,

and  an  international  investment  bank Williams de Broe. Subscription

closed today at 14:00 Latvian time.



Guntars  Kokorevičs, President, Riga Stock Exchange: "We are happy that

the  auction  has  ended  with  a success, and there has been a notable

interest  on  behalf  of the investors. Already starting from tomorrow,

LASCO  shares  will be listed on the Riga Stock Exchange Official list,

and   freely  transferable  for  the  investors  who  bought  them  for

privatisation  vouchers.  The  winning bidders who bought the shares at

today's  cash  auction  will  able  to transfer them starting from next

Monday, after the completion of clearing and settlement cycle."



Roberts  Idelsons,  Director,  Suprema:  "Both  the  domestic  and  the

international   tranche   of   LASCO   share   offering  ran  extremely

successfully  -  the vivid interest of the investors is an evidence. In

the  domestic  tranche the LASCO shares were oversubscribed 5.8 shares,

while in international tranche the oversubsription was 1.7 times."



Louis  Castro,  Director  of  Corporate Finance, Williams de Broe: "The

high demand in LASCO shares is an evidence that the consortium has done

a  good  job in marketing the shares both to domestic and international

investors. According to international experience, the higher the demand

at which the price is calculated, the more objective the price, and the

better  it  describes  the  value  of  the  company as perceived by the

investor."



Starting  from July 1, 2002, LASCO shares will be included in both Riga

Stock   Exchange   indexes  -  price  index  RICI  and  Dow  Jones  RSE

capitalisation index.



The  share allocation to the bidders participating in the international

tranche  still  has to be approved by the international investment bank

Williams de Broe, to meet the initially set criteria: the highest price

bid; the presumed quality of the investor; the size of the bid versus a

regular  bid  size; the actual price bid compared to the feedback given

during  the  pre-marketing;  attendance  of  the  marketing activities:

pre-marketing, roadshows, one-to-one meetings; similar holdings already

in  possession;  time  of submitting the bid; the expected behaviour in

secondary market.



Subsequent  to  the  allocation of shares to the winning bidders of the

international   tranche,   identification   of  international  investor

structure  and  approval of the auction results by Privatisation Agency

Management  Board,  Williams de Broe and the London Stock Exchange will

decide  on  listing  Global Depository Receipts on the Official list of

SEAQ International. 25 shares will be exchanged for one GDR, which will

be  freely  convertible to the underlying shares. Deutsche Bank will be

the custodian bank for GDRs.