Dermot Desmond, the Irish millionaire whose investments include the Celtic Football Club in Scotland and London City Airport in England, has acquired just under a third interest in Rietumu Banka, Latvia’s fourth-largest financial institution.

Desmond also will join an expanded board of directors, Rietumu Banka announced Aug. 29.

“The bank has a tremendous track record and we share a common vision for the future development of the bank: to be the leading corporate and wealth management bank in the Baltic region and CIS,” Desmond said in a statement released by the bank. “I am impressed by Latvia’s rapid pace of development and by its emergence as a financial centre for the region.”

The investor has acquired a total of 33.1 percent of the bank’s shares by purchasing shares from other investors and from a recent bank offering.

Rietumu Banka was founded in 1992 by American investor Tony Levin, at the time vice president of the Diners Club company. Rietumu merged with Saules Banka in 2001.

The bank at the end of June was ranked fourth in Latvia, with total assets of nearly LVL 708 million.

A new Latvian honorary consulate has opened in the southwestern Norwegian city of Stavanger, bringing to eight the number of Latvian diplomatic offices in the country.

Latvia’s ambassador to Norway, Māris Klišāns, attended an Aug. 25 ceremony in Stavanger to welcome new Honorary Consul Håkon Tranberg, according to a press release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The ambassador said he expects broad cooperation to develop between Latvia and the Rogaland region of Norway in business, culture, tourism and education.

Besides the honorary consul in Stavanger and the ambassador in Oslo, Latvia has an honorary consul in Bergen, Trondheim and Tromsø and two in Kristiansund. An honorary consul general also is found in Oslo.

The European Commission has proposed EUR 9.49 million in disaster aid to help Latvia recoup losses suffered from a Jan. 9 storm that smashed into the country’s Baltic Sea coastline.

The commission announced Aug. 22 that it is proposing a total aid package of nearly EUR 93 million from the European Union Solidarity Fund to help Sweden and the three Baltic republics.

The storm’s hurricane-force winds did an estimated EUR 192 million in damage to Latvia, including uprooting trees, downing power lines and ripping roofs off buildings, the commission said. Latvia’s western coast, including the port cities of Liepāja and Ventspils, received the brunt of the storm, but its effects were felt as far as Rīga and beyond.

However, hardest hit was southern Sweden, where nine people died and losses totalled nearly EUR 2.3 billion.

The money would reimburse the countries for expenses such as rescue services, cleanup of disaster-stricken areas and restoration of basic infrastructure to working condition, the commission said.

Following devasting floods in Central Europe in August 2002, the fund was established as a way to help EU members and asceding countries deal with major natural disasters. The European Commission proposes the aid package, which then must be approved by the European Parliament and the European Council.