In Estonia, Europe's largest wood pellet producer AS Graanul Invest has announced that it has sold its pellet heating subsidiary Pelletiküte AS to Adven Eesti AS, a subsidiary of an "energy as a service" provider Adven Group. With the deal, Graanul Invest exits the Estonian heat supply business to focus on its core business activities. For Adven Eesti, one of the largest energy suppliers in Estonia, the company gains ten new heat plant assets totaling 14.5 MW.
According to Graanul Invest, the agreement was signed by the members of the management boards of Pelletiküte AS and Adven Eesti on October 5. As a result of the acquisition, Adven Eesti will start supplying heat to the Kose district heating area, which comprises three boiler plants – Kose, Kose-Uuemõisa, and Ravila – with a total capacity of 5.5 MW.
In addition, Adven Eesti gains another 7 boiler plants with a total capacity of 9 MW situated across Estonia established for supplying commercial customers. Supplying energy to customers will continue under the same terms and conditions as the heat sale contracts have been transferred together with assets in the composition of the business unit and will continue to be valid.
Raul Kirjanen, CEO of AS Graanul Invest, is very happy with the transaction.
Our focus is on wood and valorising it, and producing heat has become more of a side business as a result of the fast growth over the last few years. Our discussions have led to the conclusion that it would be reasonable to exit the side business in order for us to put more emphasis on our main activity. As such, we have decided to entrust the boiler plants to Adven as an expert in its field and focus on manufacturing pellets and developing new directions, explained Kirjanen.
Urmo Heinam, CEO of Adven Eesti, says that such a contract is beneficial to both parties.
Every company more or less aims to be the best in their field and ensure a continuous growth of the organisation. Keeping the main focus on several activities makes it difficult to effectively achieve this objective. For this reason, I believe that Graanul Invest’s decision to assign heat production to a company who is operating in it as its main activity is all-around reasonable and they are a good example to other production companies. At the same time, the growth of the company together with the professional Estonia-wide team enables improving Adven’s efficiency and thereby offer even greater value added to the customers, Heinam explained.
Adven Eesti is one of the largest energy suppliers in Estonia, offering comprehensive energy solutions and the sale of energy in the industrial and facility management sectors. The company also distributes district heating and/or natural gas in 21 communities across Estonia. Within the Group the company has subsidiaries in Finland and Sweden.
