Jun 17, 2023

June 17, 2023 The Harju County Court made a fresh decision this week, according to which Toomas Jõgi, one of the former owners and board member of E-Profiili, must pay a large sum of damages.Photo: Andras Kralla Among the most important stories of this week were the financial difficulties of the start-up company Single.Earth, the obligation imposed on the ex-manager of a top company to pay damages for 15 million euros, as well as the Viims business dispute, in which one of the parties is an entrepreneur who was once among the richest people in Estonia. At the beginning of the week, Äripäev wrote how Single.Earth, a start-up company that raised $7.9 million for an ambitious plan two years ago, did not have enough money to pay employees by the beginning of this year. Those who were still in the company were offered 10% of their previous salary. According to employees who recently left the company, the managers also indicated the possibility of registering with the unemployment fund and helping the start-up company as much as possible. Company options were offered as a bonus, i.e. the opportunity to cash out the shares one day. However, according to the Labor Inspectorate and the unemployment fund, such offers are against the law. The former driver must pay 15 million euros Toomas Jõgi, the former board member and owner of the industrial company E-Profiili, which ran a spectacular business, but went down with a fuss, must pay the damages caused to the investors in the company, wrote Äripäev on Thursday. It is said to be the biggest bank fraud case in Estonia. According to the recent judgment, Jõgi will have to pay an extremely large sum of money out of his own pocket: more than 15 million euros in total. “There are no winners and losers in this story.” Veiko Tõnso, a board member of TB Works, a subsidiary of E-Profiil’s former business partner Technobalt, said these words with a bitter taste when commenting on the county court’s decision. Big business dispute in Viimsi This week, Äripäev also published a story that Veiko Salus, a pharmaceutical businessman who was one of the richest people in Estonia, is in trouble. His long-time business partner claims that Saluste has tampered with the wallet of their joint venture Interchemie with his personal wallet and taken €3 million from it to secretly set up a new company. “I haven’t done anything wrong,” said Veiko Saluste. Along with him, the business partner has also sued Saluste’s wife, Evelyn Saluste. Here unfolds one of the biggest conflicts seen in the Estonian pharmaceutical scene. The construction company went bankrupt One of Äripäiv’s stories also spoke about financial difficulties on Wednesday: the Harju County Court declared the bankruptcy of Pro Ehitus OÜ, which is engaged in the main construction contract. Just a year ago, the company offered work to ten people, but by the time the bankruptcy was declared, the tax debt had accumulated to 95,000 euros and other debts to almost 89,000 euros. Company owner and board member Reijo Ruus did not want to specify the reasons behind the bankruptcy. The latest available annual report of Pro Ehitus is from 2020. It states that the major projects were commissioned by the public sector, while the balance of the private sector remained low. “The construction sector will still be affected by the pandemic and the uncertainty of private clients in 2021,” the board noted at the time. The infamous Tero Taskila does not pay off his debt Tero Taskila, who became famous as the head of Estonian Air with a mega salary and the idea of ​​flights to small towns in Finland, came under more attention. He is launching a luxury leisure airline company in the Maldives, but at the same time, one of his Estonian companies has been owing a large amount to the tax office for years. The tax debt of the Taskila company Cool Ideas OÜ is currently over 199,000 euros. Half of it is interest debt. Because of his mega salary and zero results, Taskila, who was declared an enemy of the people, was expelled from his position in the fall of 2012 with a compensation of 100,000 euros, because such conditions were written into his contract. In 2012, Taskila earned the most of the managers of state-owned companies – his annual service amounted to 432,000 euros, which was almost three times more than that of Sandor Liive, the manager of Eesti Energia, who was in second place. Taskila’s severance pay of 100,000 euros was also the largest bonus paid to the head of a state-owned company. You can read more about what Taskila is doing now here. Investors in the recent IPO lost a lot of money Commerce technology company Grab2Go began trading on First North’s alternative market this week. In the first 15 minutes, however, the company lost nearly 67% of its IPO price. The low interest of investors and the resulting strong under-subscription were behind the large drop in the share price. Thus, only 28.5% of the base volume of Grab2Go shares was fully subscribed. By the end of the first trading day, the stock closed 43% lower than the IPO price, at 0.69 euros. The highest price of the share for the day reached 0.75 euros and the lowest price reached 0.4 euros. By the end of the stock exchange week, Grab2Go’s share price reached 0.77 euros, which means a loss of 37% compared to the IPO price. Investor Toomas is thinking about LHV However, the most noteworthy investor Toomas’ post this week was about LHV Group shares. Toomas wrote that he was patiently waiting for the April and May numbers from one of the largest companies in his portfolio, LHV. By now the profit for May is also known, and now that he estimated the June number to analyze the first half for interest, he couldn’t help but rejoice. “The share has strong growth potential, it’s true, some risks must also be taken into account,” Toomas wrote. You can read more about Toomas’s thoughts in the article “LHV stock seems to be clamoring for a purchase”. To use My Business Day log in or to fifty.