Infortar, an investment holding company owned by Ain Hanschmidt, Enn Pant and Kalev Järvelill, which also owns a 40 percent stake in shipping line Tallink, saw its consolidated sales revenue for 2021 almost double, to €412.6 million.

The figure for 2020 had been €208.6 million.

Revenue earned from natural gas sales almost tripled, while Infortar made a profit in 2021, after the loss-making preceding year.

Board chair Ain Hanschmidt stated in Infortar's annual report that the Covid crisis, now in its third year, had demanded extraordinary levels of adaptability from companies, though economically speaking, the period had been sucessfull nonetheless.

At the same time, the impact of the war in Ukraine on the Estonian economy is evident, he said. "As a result of the sanctions imposed on Russia and Belarus, many normal supply chains of goods and services are being interrupted, and in many cases it is proving very difficult for companies to find suitable alternatives to the current input goods in order to continue operations in the planned volume and at the current price level."

Nonetheless, Infortar's operating profit also rose, rose from €21.1 million in 2020 to €41.1 million in 2021.

Net profit stood at €18.9 million in 2021, compared with a net loss in 2020, of €15.8 million.

Infortar annual report 2021 quick facts:

• Group's sales revenue increased in most areas of activity.
• Largest increase in the turnover came from the sale of natural gas, which increased from €118.3 million to €373.3 million in a year.
• Sale of liquefied natural gas (LNG), more than doubled which rose to €11.2 million. 
• Sales of taxi services and revenue from services to passenger vessel customers fell.
• Close to 39 percent of the sales revenue was earned from the Estonian market and 37 percent from the Finnish market (2020: 65 percent of turnover from the Estonian market, nearly 26 percent from the Finnish market).  
• Profit-per-share rose to €59, compared with - (minus) €52 in 2020.
• Infortar's undistributed profit per balance sheet date stood at €402.1 million. 
• Infortar paid out no dividends in 2021.

The Infortar group is an umbrella for close to 100 companies, primarily in the shipping, energy and real estate sector.

Eesti Gaas, which supplies the vast majority of natural gas to consumers, has hiked prices to €4.10 per cubic meter in October, from €2.65 per cubic meter, itself a new, higher price level put in place for September.

In July, the company inked a deal with Norwegian firm Equinor reached to purchase 2 TWh of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) at a reported €300 million, which, ERR reports, would equate to a winter reserve price of €150 per MWh, more than twice the current stock market price.

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