Page 27 - Annual Report 2010

25

Equity

Energate

“The financial support

and advice

provided helped us to make this project a reality and to establish that wind farms are the energy providers of tomorrow

”.

Hardi Sui CEO, Energate

Introduction

Being at the forefront of regional development, entrepre-neurship and innovation, is part of EIF’s core objectives and is reflected in the companies backed by the funds in which EIF invests.

“Energate, a gate to energy” is what this company prom-ises, describing in a nutshell its activity.

Since 2008, Energate had successfully operated last mile natural gas distribution in Estonia for customers around Tallinn and Tartu, including those in the most remote loca-tions, and was ready for new challenges.

CEO Hardi Sui believed that Energate’s future lay beyond their traditional activity and wanted to embark in inno-vative renewable energies projects so that his company could become the Estonian gate to green energy. In the greater scheme of things, he was convinced that the de-velopment of renewable energy would have a part to play in the regional growth of Estonia.

Added value

Keen to prepare for the set-up of an 18MW wind farm project in south-west Estonia, he found the perfect strate-gic partner in Baltcap, a private equity firm who believed in his business model. Backed by EIF and thanks to the CIP resources of the European Commission, Baltcap pro-vided the capital Hardi Sui needed to realise his plans.

The additional financing capacity made the building of the infrastructure for six wind turbines to be later integrat-ed in the energy network possible.

A gate to energy in Estonia