Estonian market leader

Acquiring 24 service stations from Alexela Oil next year will make Eesti Statoil market leader for motor fuel sales in Estonia.

The Statoil subsidiary, which currently has 14 forecourts in various cities, is set to boost its market share from 13 to 22 per cent after the takeover agreed on 18 December.

That will put it ahead of Shell and Finland’s Neste group, which have roughly 21 and 15 per cent of the market respectively.

“This acquisition means we’ve reached one of our principal goals by becoming market leader in Estonia before 2000,” says Epp Kiviaed, president of Eesti Statoil.
“Taking over 24 stations of various size, spread over several parts of the country, will expand our business beyond its present concentration in Tallinn.”

Ten of the company’s existing forecourts are in the Estonian capital.

The deal with locally-owned Alexela Oil comes into force on 1 April 1999, and Statoil will start preparations for the takeover in the first quarter.

Committed to an expanding motor fuel market in the Baltic states, the group aims to have a network of more than 110 stations in Latvia and Lithuania as well as Estonia by 2001.

It currently owns and operates 73 stations in 26 towns and cities across this region.