Estonia, Legislation, Markets and Companies, Mergers and take-overs, Transport

"The main actors in the glass market are Carglass, Autoklaas 1, also Glassdrive. Let us be honest, the Estonian market is extremely small, and when there are 3 or 4 companies that have grown to be of significant size they simply don't have enough room on the market," Rainer Virve, board member and owner of Windrox OU, told BNS.

The companies filed an application for consolidation in August, the acquiring company is Windrox and after the completion of the consolidation all the companies will use the Carglass brand. "We hope that everything can be entered into the Commercial Register and the process of the consolidation concluded during the month of December," Virve said.

After the consolidation Windrox will have an influential position on the market but will not be the market leader,which means that the consolidation doesn't have to be endorsed by the Competition Authority.

"The car glass market is effectively divided in two – one half is services, where our market share is somewhere in the range of 20–30%. This is a bit complex, because our competitor is not another car glass company but a car dealer," Virve said.

Virve estimated their market share in wholesale to be upwards of 40%. After the consolidation Windrox wishes to focus primarily on the Estonian market.

Carglass is a trade mark of the international Belron group.

Windrox made a net loss of 19,700 euros on revenue of 1.3 million euros last year, after earning a net profit of 120,900 euros on revenue of 1.3 million euros the year before.