Nordic Business Report-November 7, 2006-Swedish forest group Sodra acquires forest in Latvia (C)1994-2006 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD http://www.m2.com Swedish forest group Sodra said on Monday (6 November) that it has acquired 4,800 hectares of forest in Latvia for an undisclosed sum. The acquired forest comprises mainly birch, pine and spruce. The seller was Finnish forest group Metsaliitto, which through the deal exits Latvia. In June Metsaliitto also sold 5,000 hectares of forest to Sodra in Estonia. The acquisition from Metsaliitto is part of Sodras strategy to build up its forest assets portfolio, and Sodra said that it regards the present deal as a "good alternative to other financial investments". Sodra is a forestry group owned by 35,000 forest owner members primarily in the south of Sweden. The group has 3,600 employees and reported sales of over SEK24bn in the 18-month financial year 2005/2006. One British pound (GBP) is worth approximately 13.70 Swedish kronor (SEK). ((Comments on this story may be sent to [email protected]))