Utilitas Group's parent company OÜ Utilitas is the largest district heating company in Estonia and also one of the country's largest producers of renewable energy.

An 85 percent stake in the group is owned by the international infrastructure fund European Diversified Infrastructure Fund II (EDIF II), whose assets are managed by Igneo Infrastructure Partners, the infrastructure direct investment unit of First Sentier Investors Group. That is in turn owned by Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, a Japanese financial conglomerate and one of the world's largest holding companies.

The remainder is divided between different companies owned by members of Utilitas' management.

In 2022, Utilitas accounted for 12 percent of Estonia's total renewable electricity production. Its subsidiaries were active in district heating and cooling, renewable heat and power generation, as well as he development of wind farms, both in Estonia and neighboring countries. In addition, Utilitas also has a 20 percent stake in water company AS Tallinna Vesi.

Last year, the group expanded its activities even further. An agreement was signed with the City of Tallinn to create the district heating company Utilitas Tallinna Soojus, with Utilitas owning two thirds. The precise terms of that deal may be revealed in the 2023 accounts, however, the company has not yet published them.

In addition, Utilitas has decided to build Tallinn's largest solar park, with a capacity of 9.3 MW, in the Väo energy complex, and has acquired the district heating businesses of Paide and Valka from Enefit Green for €16 million.

Utilitas' plans also include green-hydrogen production, with the company receiving a €4 million grant last year from the Center for Environmental Investments to set up a green-hydrogen production unit in Tallinn.

In March this year, Utilitas became the first company to have its equipment approved by Elering for the provision of network stabilization services. This will be needed for the move to connect the Baltic electricity systems to the European frequency band, which is scheduled to happen in February next year.

For Utilitas, as well as other offshore wind farm developers, the government's U-turn this February  was good news, as it abandoned previous plans to reach the 2030 renewable electricity target with onshore wind farms and instead decided to reserve part of the generation capacity for offshore wind farms. Utilitas began the development of five offshore wind farms in Saare-Liivi in 2021.

Utilitas provides district heating services in eight Estonian cities and connects 185,000 households, or around 397,000 people. One third of district heating customers in Estonia are Utilitas customers. In 2022, the company reported a record number of new connections made.

Utilitas has not yet published its financial results for 2023, but its turnover for the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2023 was €54.5 million.

In 2022, Utilitas accounted for 12 percent of Estonia's total renewable electricity production and had sales totaling nearly €260 million. Net profit was nearly €40 million, up 41 percent on year. The company's assets amounted to €585 million, with investments of €77 million, plus €50 million from the Utilitas Wind joint venture.

Loans amounted to €333 million and Utilitas paid out dividends of €5 million in 2022, as it did the previous year.

UG Investments' activities range from parking services to thermo woods

The board of Utilitas is composed of Andreas Greim, Gregor Kurth and Chairman Kristjan Rahu, who sold his majority stake to First State Investments in 2018 but continued to lead the company. The group's CEO is Priit Koit.

Rahu's stake in Utilitas is held through holding company UG Investments, the board of which includes himself, Priit Koit and Valdur Laid. Koit and Laid hold three percent and 0.5 percent shares in the company respectively.

UG Investments' other businesses cover a very wide range of activities. UG Investments' portfolio includes Utilitas, Utilitas Wind, Audi Estonia, Thermory, Stargate Hydrogen, Tactical Foodpack, Ühisteenused, Lemonade Stand and Est-Agar.

In Fourings OÜ, the owner of Audi Estonia, Rahul holds a stake in a partnership with Peeter Tiitson, who bought stakes in three companies that sell Audis from Hillar Teder in 2020. In 2022, the company had a turnover of €45 million and profit of nearly €3 million.

The parking company Ühisteenused was bought by UG Investeeringud from G4S Baltics in 2019 and had a turnover of €6.6 million in 2022. The company made a profit of €1.5 million in the same period.

Thermory, a manufacturer of thermal wood and sauna materials, was acquired by UG Investments in 2020. Thermory had a turnover of €149 million and a profit of over €8 million in 2022.

Stargate Hydrogen, which develops solutions for the deployment of green hydrogen, is owned by Rahu's holding company which has a stake of just over 50 percent. Co-owners include Richard Tomingas, a former Arco Vara director and shareholder, and Taavi Madiberk, the head of Skeleton Technologies OÜ. In 2022, the company made a loss of €143,000.

The holding company Lemonade Stand, which invests in early-stage technology companies with Baltic or Eastern European roots, is 80 percent owned by UG Investments. The remaining stake is split equally between Kaarel Rahu and Siim Teller.

Est-Agar, a food production company also owned by UG Investments, had a turnover of €778,000 in 2022 but made an annual loss of €634,000.

Kristjan Rahu holds a majority stake in Medesto Logistics, which was founded in 2020 and is active in the resale of personal protective equipment and rapid COVID tests. The company grew its sales rapidly in 2022, winning a public procurement contract for rapid tests for schools from the Ministry of Education. It also became a supply partner for rapid tests to one of the largest retail chains in Finland. In total, the company supplied more than 11 million rapid tests. It had a turnover of €14 million and a profit of over €1 million.

Rahu also owns a stake in the Hell Hunt bar restaurant in Tallinn Old Town, where his business partner is Marek Reinaas, a member of the board of political party Eesti 200 party and a former schoolmate. Both companies own a 25 percent stake in OÜ Hunt Kriimsilm, the company that owns Hell Hunt. The company had a turnover of €1.2 million in 2022 and made a profit of €265,000.

Rahu also owns a stake in Ida-India Kompani, which runs the restaurant Krog No. 14 on the island of Vormsi. He owns half of the company, with the other half owned by Andres-Andi Sarve.

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