2023-04-15 20:04:55
The transaction – the final agreement signed by the company “Latvijas gāze” (LG) on the sale of its wholly-owned subsidiary, the natural gas distribution operator “Gaso” to the Estonian company “Eesti Gaas” – does not cause concerns about the protection of national interests, referring to the statement of LG board chairman Aigars Kalvīš. reports Latvian Television (LTV).
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LG’s board chairman stated that the potential buyer – the Estonian company – “is a European Union company, with European shareholders, it is well known and one of the largest companies in Estonia”.
Gaso was chosen to be sold directly to the aforementioned Estonian company due to its active interest. In general, however, as Kalvītis pointed out, this “was not the most favorable moment to sell the company”https://www.delfi.lv/bizness/biznesa_vide/.”If the amendments to the National Security Law had not been made last year, our shareholders would hardly have been in such a hurry would have done this process,” he explained.
For the sale of Gaso, LG will receive a basic consideration of 120 million euros and interest for the time until the transaction is completed. The deal is expected to close by the end of this year.
In order to close the deal, the government’s approval for the takeover of national security assets is still required. The Minister of Climate and Energy Raimonds Čudars (JV), when asked by an LTV journalist whether he would support this deal, answered: “In this case, we cannot talk about it – to support or not to support – national security interests are primary.”
The minister stated to the television that “the government must consider the specific offer in connection with the change of owners of the company and make a decision in accordance with the interests of national security”.
According to the current regulations, “Gaso” cannot be managed by Russian or Belarusian shareholders, but LG has shareholders representing the Russian state. Therefore, “Gasso” needs to be sold.
As the Latvian Television program “De facto” previously investigated, the Latvian state-owned electricity concern AS “Latvenergo” had also shown interest in the purchase of “Gaso”.
It has already been reported that the mentioned transaction is one of the steps of LG’s strategic plan – to rationalize its operations and focus on the core business, which is gas wholesale and retail.
Gaso’s revenue last year, according to preliminary data, was 52.46 million euros, which is 11.3% less than in 2021, and the company also suffered a loss of 1.751 million euros, against a profit a year earlier.
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