The company is establishing new talented software development teams, starting with four small, agile teams, expanding to 70 developers over time, Invest Lithuania says in a statement.

They offer the opportunity to work with other skilled developers in an international work environment, making use of an enviable technical stack, focusing on code quality, design patterns and using the latest tools and new technologies to boost productivity for the Storebrand group.

"This developmental stage is an initial step towards the establishment of a competence centre for the entire Storebrand group in Vilnius," said Siw. E. Seland, General Manager of Storebrand Baltic. "When we began operations in Lithuania, we initially planned to move only 15% of the business functions of the entire group to Vilnius. Since then, however, local specialists have consistently exceeded our expectations, and so we have chosen Lithuania as the second home for our group. We are going to expand our team of employees and expand the scope of their responsibilities."

Storebrand's business service sector is also expanding rapidly in Lithuania, and many jobs requiring high qualifications are being established. The branch in Vilnius boasts fast growth: the numbers of employees here has doubled to 270 over the past year, and should exceed 300 by the end of this year.

"This is one more example of a concrete business outcome in Lithuania that has exceeded the most daring plans of investors. I hope that this developmental stage will be successful and I encourage Storebrand to implement even more investment projects in Lithuania," Milda Darguzaite, General Manager at Invest Lithuania, said.

Storebrand devotes a great deal of attention to developing the skills of the company's specialists. The specialists who work in the business branches of the Vilnius center are given intensive Norwegian or Swedish language courses. The working language of the new IT branch will be English.

The Storebrand Group, with roots back to 1767, is a leading player in the Nordic market for pensions, life and health insurance, banking and asset management. The group has offices in Norway, Sweden and Lithuania with the head office in Oslo, Norway. By the end of 2012 there were 2250 employees in the whole group, which currently serves a total of 1.8 million customers in Norway and Sweden. Storebrand Baltic, UAB was established in Lithuania back in 2007 and with 270 employees today is the fastest growing service centre within the Group.

www.baltic-course.com