Ecology, Energy, Estonia, Legislation

International Internet Magazine. Baltic States news & analytics Friday, 29.03.2024, 00:01

Estonia: Oleg Ossinovski's complaint halts purchase of Nelja Energia

BC, Tallinn, 15.11.2018.Print version
In response to a complaint by Estonian businessman Oleg Ossinovski's company Skinest Energia, the Tallinn administrative court suspended the decision with which state-owned energy group Eesti Energia was allowed to purchase producer of renewable energy Nelja Energia, theaccroding to the daily Postimees reports writes LETA/BNS.

Skinest Energia, a company held by Ossinovski, a few days after the decision of the Competition Authority submitted a complaint to the Tallinn administrative court for the annulment of the Competition Authority's decision and identification that the merger of Eesti Energia's subsidiary Enefit Green and Nelja Energia is prohibited.


Alternatively, Skinest Energia is applying for the Competition Authority to make a new decision with which the merger of the companies would be prohibited or, as another alternative, the Competition Authority would be obligated to continue handling the merger of Enefit Green AS and Nelja Energia AS.

Along with the complaint, Ossinovski's company also submitted an application for preliminary legal protection, with which it asked to immediately suspend the validity of the decision of the Competition Authority retrospectively and prohibit the entry into force of the merger of Enefit Green and Nelja Energia until the court verdict concluding the procedure of the court case in question enters into force.


The court with a November 8 order suspended the validity of the Competition Authority's decision and prohibited the entry into force of the merger of Enefit Green and Nelja Energia until December 10.


"The court issued a deadline for presenting a stance to the Competition Authority, regarding the justification of a preliminary legal protection application, on November 19 at the latest. Until the same deadline, Enefit Green and Nelja Energia also have the right to submit their stance regarding the preliminary legal protection application of the appellant," Anneli Vilu, spokesperson for the administrative court, said.


After this deadline has passed, the court will issue an order, with which it will be decided whether the complaint will be taken into handling and what the further course of the procedure will be.


The Estonian Competition Authority at the beginning of November gave the state-held energy group Eesti Energia permission to complete the acquisition of the producer of renewable energy Nelja Energia. The competition authority of Latvia endorsed the deal on July 11, while the Lithuanian competition watchdog approved it in August.


The Eesti Energia renewable energy subsidiary Enefit Green at the end of May signed an agreement with Nelja Energia majority shareholder Vardar Eurus AS and minority shareholders, whereby it would buy Nelja Energia for 289 mln euros and would also take over Nelja Energia's liabilities worth 204 million euros. Eesti Energia later intends to list Enefit Green.







    Search site