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RIGA, Dec 12 (LETA) - Riga Acting Mayor, Vice Mayor Edvards Ratnieks (National Alliance) on Friday suspended the adoption of a draft decision on the sale of Rigas Namu Parvaldnieks (RNP) municipal housing manager, Ratnieks' adviser Inese Ozolina informed LETA.

Ratnieks called against rushing such an important decision for the residents of Riga and instructed continuing to carefully weigh other scenarios for RNP.

"The matter has not yet been sufficiently discussed to be taken forward. At the moment, the proposal to list 51 percent of the company's shares on the stock exchange is only one of the possible scenarios, which is being promoted by RNP itself with the involvement of an expert," Ratnieks said.

In his opinion, all possible scenarios need to be properly assessed in order to be in the interest of the municipality and the residents of Riga.

"At the moment, there is a strong feeling that this is in the company's interest," Ratnieks said.

Ratnieks told reporters that the discussions in the Riga City Council on the future of the RNP have not been concluded. According to him, it is necessary to carefully assess all possible scenarios, understand which one is the most beneficial for the residents and the municipality, and only then move forward with the draft decision.

Ratnieks does not deny that the listing of RNP shares or attracting investors directly could help improve the housing management service provided by the company. However, he categorically objects to considering only one scenario.

The Riga vice mayor noted that experts hired by the company had developed three possible scenarios, but that the city council only assessed one of them.

One scenario envisages selling the company in one piece, the other - transforming the company into a joint-stock company, listing its shares on the stock exchange, selling 51 percent of the shares at the beginning and then selling the remaining shares after three years. The third scenario is to split the company into parts with smaller management and sell it off.

Ratnieks admitted that a decision on the company's future development scenarios could be made within a year, as the municipality cannot deal with the management of buildings for a long period of time.

As LETA reported, the Riga City Council has prepared a draft decision to sell off RNP.

In order to ensure the sale of the company's shares in a public offering, it is planned to reorganize RNP by transforming it into a joint-stock company.

Initially, it is planned to sell a majority stake in RNP by making a public offer for 51 percent of the company's shares and listing the majority of the shares on the Baltic regulated securities market and starting trading on the Baltic Main List.

After the majority shares have been sold, it is planned to sell the remaining shares.

In order to ensure a broad participation of investors and the public, it is envisaged that the public offer will also be made to retail investors and individual investors, offering them to acquire up to 15 percent of the shares of the company.

It is envisaged that the participation of the Riga municipality in RNP will be terminated by ending the decisive influence of the municipality in the company by the end of 2027 at the latest, and by ending the participation completely by the end of 2028.

RNP is currently wholly owned by the Riga City Council. Its turnover in 2024 was EUR 80.569 million, an increase of 8.55 percent compared to 2023, and the company earned EUR 9 million. RNP employs around 2,000 people and manages around 3,500 buildings.