Grid distributor Elektrilevi has acquired competitor Imatra Elekter, Estonian subsidiary of a Finnish firm, for EUR 28.9 million. The move means Elektrilevi now serves nearly all customers nationwide.
Board chair at Elektrilevi Mihkel Harm said of the deal: “The merger of two companies and full integration of systems will take close to two years, according to our best current knowledge; thus, for customers of Imatra Elekter’s network service, everything will remain unchanged until then.”
Imatra serves around 25,000 customers in western Estonia, and also in Viimsi, just outside Tallinn.
Elektrilevi is state-owned and serves around 533,000 people, following the deal.
The deal had already been reported earlier this year, but had yet to be finalized at that time, including the requirement for Competition Authority (Konkurentsiamet) approval, and the sum involved had not been reported.
Mihkel Harm said any changes to service provision would be communicated to existing customers of both companies.
Elektrilevi now manages 63,000 km of power cabling, 25,300 electricity substaitons and over 533,000 customers, giving it a 95% market share.
Some of the formalities required ahead of the deal included Imatra needing to change its sales portfolio to reflect the fact that Elektrilevi is a transmission operator, but does not sell electricity itself – that service is largely covered by the state-owned Eesti Energia – a process which was finished mid-June.
The actual acquisition was carried out by Elektrum Eesti, a part of the Latvenergo Group.
Imatra Elekter will operate as an Elektrilevi subsidiary for the time being; Rudolf Penu has been appointed a new board chairman. (ERR/Business World Magazine)
