Energy, Estonia, Financial Services

The government decided in the spring that this year the company would pay 95 million euros of dividends. The dividends have not been paid yet because Finance Minister Sven Sester allowed the energy company to pay these at the end of November.

Paying dividends would increase the net debt of Eesti Energia and would reduce equity capital, which means that financial ratios would worsen. But financial ratios are important because in loan agreements their minimum levels have been laid down. Therefore the company turned to Sester to be allowed to pay out 33 million euros less dividends from the company, spokespeople for the government said.

Sester agreed with Eesti Energia and submitted the plan to the government which is to discuss it on Thursday.

In addition to reducing dividends, the corporate income tax paid by Eesti Energia would decrease by 8.3 million euros. Therefore the company would pay a total of 77.4 million euros to the state's coffers.