TOP ESTONIAN ENTERPRISES

EKE INVEST AS
The Most Competitive
Business Service and
Real Estate Enterprise
2009
Ready at the
start line
EKE Invest is a very interesting enterprise.
For instance, the building of an
Estonian village on Crete Island was
started a few years ago and quite a
few of our fellow Estonians have
bought summer houses on the island
by now. There are the beginnings of
several projects in the new Europe as
well – in Romania and Moldova. In addition
to real estate and production
projects, EKE Invest has holdings in
three local health centres. The director
of the enterprise Rein Tiik says
that it is now time to reflect. This does
not, however, mean that investments
are stopped – quite the contrary, EKE
Invest has not set any restrictions on
investing money. All this promises interesting
projects. “We make plans,
think about things and see what else
we could do and set ourselves ready
at the start line,” says Tiik.
How did EKE Invest do last year?
We are currently not launching many new projects,
but 2007 as well as 2008 were both relatively
good years. The year 2007 was actually
even better because a number of projects that
were grandly started in economically good years
reached their natural end and were completed.
In good times, both development and business
projects were started in our subsidiaries and
the realisation thereof was focused in 2007 and
2008.
Which project were you most satisfied with?
There have been quite a few. One of the big and
beautiful projects we participated in was the
construction of the Ehituse ABC retail chain.
This came about through our subsidiary and in
turn, through a joint company created by the
latter – the logistic chain often extends far but
this was a really big and good project that was
well played out. We ourselves have been more
involved in completing the double tower for the
people in Tallinn. The smallest project was located
on Magasini Street – the restoration of a
hospital building as a residential home designed
by architect H. Johanson in 1926. This is
located in an area of cultural and residential
value, in a beautiful park environment and is
protected by heritage conservation. The house
almost had to be broken down to pieces and
then restored in previous form as closely as
possible. That was a large and specific project,
for which little gratitude is expressed after the
completion of the building. In addition, it is not
cost effective but sometimes some things need
to be done based on a sense of obligation.
If we talk a little about history,
what have been your most interesting
endeavours in the construction field?
During a good period at the end of the good
times, when all the enterprises who had any resources
looked outside Estonia, so did we and
we launched two projects – one in the new Europe
and the other in the old Europe. In 2006,
we started to build an Estonian village on Crete.
By now, two thirds of the Estonian village has
been completed and Estonians are living there.
Five houses are currently still on sale in the village.
We are not building there at the moment
but we have gained our experience. It is also interesting
to observe that the downturn has not
only affected us – Crete used to be very popular
among the English, whose share has now decreased
– the Greek banks will no longer grant
them loans to buy houses. We financed the
Crete project ourselves from own funds and
purchasers’ advance payments.
Why are you attracted
to investments in health centres?
We have contributed our energy to three Estonian
health centres – Tervis, Tervise Paradiis and
Värska. If an enterprise is old, some projects
within the enterprise are old and long-term.
During the whole independence era, they have
been developed and contributed to. We have no
restrictions regarding where we invest; we put
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