SIA "iCotton" company starts bond trading on the stock exchange

On January 19, the limited liability company “iCotton”, operating in the territory of the Liepaja Special Economic Zone started bond trading at the "Nasdaq Riga" - the only regulated secondary securities market in Latvia. The exchange provides companies with an efficient channel to raise capital and to facilitate the participation of institutional and private investors in primary offerings and secondary trading and brings together investors, listed companies seeking access to capital resources, and exchange members who mediate securities transactions for investors through a common electronic trading system. SIA "iCotton" is the first company from Liepaja to trade bonds on the "Nasdaq Riga" exchange. 

Interest in corporate bonds from foreign investors is said to be high. In a couple of weeks, SIA “iCotton” company managed to get about 20 million euros for its bonds. As Jānis Bormanis, Deputy Chairman of the Council of SIA "iCotton", said, the money obtained from the bonds will be used to cover existing credit obligations, as well as for exploring and developing new markets. 

In the first years of the company's operation, about half of its production was sold at the Russian market, a small part also to Belarus, however, even before Russia started to wage war on Ukraine, the company was looking for opportunities to expand more on the European market. Trading with Russia and Belarus has been stopped already in 2022. 

Jānis Bormanis emphasizes that it was a big challenge to reorient the directions of goods supply and to find new markets in a relatively short period of time. "Economics lectures teach how to act during a medical crisis, a financial crisis, a political crisis, an energy supply crisis, only theoretically mentioning that all of them may coincide at one and the same time. We are pleased that it all worked out well." 

The largest manufacturer of cotton hygiene products in the European Union - SIA "iCotton" was founded in 2013 in Liepaja. Initially, the company rented premises from "Lauma Fabrics" company. Currently the company has two production buildings, where 11 production lines have been installed. Part from business in Liepaja, SIA “iCotton” owns a daughter company and a large factory in Poland. Recently SIA “iCotton” founded a daughter company in the United States to explore new markets. The company employs a total of about 630 employees and is a manufacturer of hygiene products - dry wipes, cotton pads and other goods - in total almost 20 types of cotton hygiene products.