Aigars Kalvītis, Chairman of the Board of Latvijas Gāze, notes: “The said agreement is one of the steps in Latvijas Gāze’s strategic plan to rationalise its operations and focus on its core business, which is gas wholesale and retail.”

GASO is the only natural gas distribution operator in Latvia, providing natural gas network security, technical services and natural gas consumption accounting. The company’s operations have always been independent of Latvijas Gāze, so the change of ownership has no impact on Latvijas Gāze’s customers. The customer’s agreement with Latvijas Gāze for the supply of natural gas remains in force, as does the existing infrastructure for the supply of natural gas. 

The sales process consisted of a number of steps. Interested investors were approached, a package of data and information was prepared and sent to potential investors, and an investor due diligence process was performed. Following the receipt of offers from potential investors, an analysis of the offers was conducted, and a proposal was developed.

Following the approval of the Competition Council and the Latvian Government, Eesti Gaas was given the green light to purchase GASO. Eesti Gaas’ sole shareholder is the Estonian investment company Infortar, owned by Estonian entrepreneurs Ain Hanschmidt, Enn Pant and Kalev Järvelill.

Infortar operates in five countries and its main areas of activity are energy, freight and real estate. Infortar has a balance sheet of EUR 1.1 billion. Infortar Group includes a total of 47 companies, including 41% of Tallink Grupp, 100% of Eesti Gaas and a diverse real estate portfolio.

Latvijas Gāze is one of the leaders in the Baltic energy industry, which today provides its business customers with wholesale and sales of natural gas in Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, and Finland, and in the household segment has proven to be one of the largest and most important natural gas traders in Latvia.