Britain has imposed sanctions on Latvijas gāze shareholders representing Gazprom, and Russia’s addition to the list of offshore territories has basically denied Latvijas gāze access to public procurement projects in Latvia, as reported by LTV programme De Facto.
Latvijas gāze council chairman Kiril Seleznev and Yelena Mikhailova are now under sanctions.
The programme notes – while the ministry was busy “pushing paper” to include Russia on the list of offshore territories, Latvijas gāze was still able to win in procurement projects concerning contracts worth then EUR 1.5 million. The initiative to apply a 90% tax on all transactions with offshore territories indicates just how profitable Latvijas gāze’s business is to Russia.
The Procurement Monitoring Bureau (IUB), noting that there is a case of exception, told the programme that institutions that use fuel to heat their premises are not allowed to procure it from Latvijas gāze. However, heating enterprises are allowed to procure gas as an exception.
“It’s a choice of the public utilities provider. It’s their choice whether to take advantage of the exception provided by law and not to comply with the provisions of the law, or, of course, they may also decide to apply [all exclusion conditions],” IUB head Artis Lapiņš told De Facto.
Latvian government does allow Latvijas gāze was still able to participate in procurement projects several months after Europe added Russia to the list of offshore territories. For the offshore status to come into force in Latvia, the country needed to include Russia on its own list. This required four and a half months. In this time Gazprom’s partially owned Latvijas gāze was able to win in multiple procurement projects worth approximately EUR 1.5 million, the programme reports.
The Ministry of Finance told the programme that Latvia acted relatively quickly, because usually the local list is updated at the end of the year. The process turned out longer because at the same time as adding Russia to the list, the Ministry of Finance decided to change the way how Latvia takes over lists from Europe. From now on it will happen automatically.
The board of Latvijas gāze intends to hold an extraordinary shareholders meeting on the 22nd of February, according to the announcement provided to Nasdaq Riga exchange.
The agenda of the extraordinary shareholders’ meeting includes the issue of the new version of the Articles of Association of “Latvijas gāze” and the choice of the central securities depository in which to record the company’s shares.
The agenda also includes the election of the council and the determination of remuneration for the council, as well as the election of the audit committee and the determination of remuneration for the audit committee.
Latvijas gāze’s biggest shareholders are Russian Gazprom (34%), Rietumu Banka (28.97%), German Uniper Ruhrgas International GmbH (18.26%) and Itera Latvija LLC (16%).
In 2022 the company’s turnover was EUR 702.604 million, which is 32.5% more when compared to 2021. The company’s profits grew multiple times and reached EUR 40.824 million.
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