Another two US companies are eyeing Lithuania as a possible investment location: the health insurer Blue Cross Blue Shield considers setting up a service center here and the engineering infrastructure company Parsons is interested in national defense projects, the business daily Verslo Zinios reported on February 13th.

Construction of the 350-million-euro combined heat and power (CHP) plant is starting in Vilnius. Financed by the state-run energy holding Lietuvos Energija and the European Union, the facility should be operational by the end of 2019. This is the largest energy project currently implemented in Lithuania.

Substations of Lithuania's Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) and the Utena transformers, which are crucial for electricity network synchronization with continental Europe, will be reconstructed by road and bridge construction company Kauno Tiltai and Sweden's energy and automation technologies concern ABB for nearly 29 million euros.

WePower, a blockchain-based green energy trading platform developed by Lithuanians, said it has raised 40 million US dollars from over 22,900 people during its initial coin offering (ICO), making it the largest token sale in the energy industry so far. The ICO closed on Feb. 1.

Vakaru Medienos Grupe (VMG), one of the largest wood and furniture groups in the Baltics, is set to invest 180 million euros in the northern Lithuanian district of Akmene, with plans to build a new particle board factory by 2020 and a new furniture production facility at a later stage, the district's mayor said.

Denmark's power cable production group NKT Cables Group is set to open its first shared service center in Lithuania's second-biggest city of Kaunas, with plans to hire 30 finance professionals within the next three years.

Lithuanian companies manufacturing furniture and interior items for Sweden's furniture group Ikea in 2017 moved up to the 4th place on the list of largest suppliers, passing Swedish manufacturers.

Gas Interconnector Poland-Lithuania (GIPL), a project that was suspended in 2016, is again making progress in Poland after the country's gas transmission operator Gaz-System chose designers who will prepare a new blueprint of the gas pipeline in southeastern part of the country.

Agrosfera, a Lithuania-based agricultural commodities trading company in which the Icor Group plans to buy a 60 percent stake, is planning to expand its operations in Latvia.

The Bank of Lithuania, which supervises financial market participants, has imposed a fine of over 207,000 euros on the refrigerator manufacturer Snaige, saying that the company failed to act in its own interests and in the interests of all of its shareholders.