Imatra Elekter serves around 25,000 customers in western Estonia, and also in Viimsi, just outside Tallinn.

Mihkel Härm, Elektrilevi board chair, said: "The deal arose on the initiative of [parent company] Finnish energy group Imatran Seudun Sähkö, who wanted to leave the Estonian market but leave the company in professional hands. Since it coincided with our wish to expand our distribution network business, we reached an agreement."

Härm also cited greater efficiency and improvements in Imatra's, now Elektrilevi's, service, pending investments.

So far as Imatra Elekter's customers go, for the mean-time things will stay as they are, while Elektrilevi will notify customers of any future changes. ERR reports that Imatra's prices have been on average 12 percent higher than Elektrilevi's.

Fully synchronizing the systems will take almost two years, however, after which network charges are likely to reach convergence.

The cost of the deal will be known after the Competition Authority (Konkurentsiamet) has approved it.

Elektrilevi is the largest grid distributor in Estonia, managing around 60,000 km of power lines, 24,000 substations and over half a million customers.

Imatra Elekter brings a further 3,000 km or so of power lines and 25,000 customers.

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