The Competition Council analyzes the transaction by which Premier Energy SRL takes over the sole direct control over Forte Gaz GN, announced the authority. The merger operation consists in the acquisition by Premier Energy of all the shares of Forte Gaz GN from current affiliates, namely Trade Invest Capital and Mihai Ionut Vilt.

Premier Energy was established in 2007, under the name of Petrom Distributie Gaze, at that time being controlled by OMV Petrom. In 2013, Ligatne Limited, Cyprus, took control of this company from OMV Petrom by signing a Shareholding Agreement. The group of companies to which Premier Energy belongs is active in the markets for the supply and distribution of natural gas. According to zf.ro, Premier Energy is controlled by the Czech investment fund Emma Capital, it has 93.000 consumers and businesses of over 90 million lei in 2016.

Forte Gaz is a company active solely on the natural gas supply market, and it has a portfolio of 700 clients and business of 88 million lei. “The significant degradation of the legislative and competition framework in the field of natural gas in Romania brings a high degree of risk to the activities of the natural gas operators. Thus, te natural movement from a commercial point of view is a concentration of operations. The value of the transaction is confidential “, said Mihai-Ionut Vilt, General Manager of Forte Gaz, quoted by Ziarul Financiar.

According to the provisions of the Competition Law no. 21/1996, republished, the proposed operation is an economic concentration that exceeds the value thresholds stipulated by the law, being subject to the control of the Competition Council, states the release of the authority.