February 7 (SeeNews) - RWE Hrvatska, a unit of German energy company RWE Group, said on Tuesday it has purchased a 75% stake in gas distribution and supply companies Koprivnica plin and Koprivnica opskrba from the municipal government of Koprivnica for 51 million kuna ($7.3 million/6.9 million euro).
REW Hrvatska has become the majority owner of the Koprivnica gas distribution and supply network which encompasses some 13,000 users, the company said in a statement.
You can subscribe to our M&A newsletter here
Municipal utility company Komunalac will remain the owner of a 25% stake in the two companies.
RWE is obliged to retain all employees of the two companies and keep the headquarters in Koprivnica in the next five years.
RWE Hrvatska hopes to seize 10% of the Croatian gas supply market in three years. The company is also Croatia's second largest supplier of electricity with 110,000 clients.
RWE has been present in Croatia since 1996 and has joint business with state-owned power utility HEP at the TE Plomin thermal power plant, and ZOV, a waste water treatment plant in Zagreb.
In 2013, RWE entered Croatia's power supply market after acquiring local electricity supplier Energija 2 Sustavi and renaming it to RWE Energija.
(1 euro=7.44525 kuna)