Energy Trader Gen-I With Huge Growth
Foreign sales, which account for 20% of overall revenue, doubled. In Slovenia the company achieved a 25% market share in electricity and entered the gas retail market.
This year the company plans to expand retail operations in Austria, Croatia, Serbia, Macedonia and Turkey. It plans to set up wholesale infrastructure in Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland, France and Switzerland.
Gen-I recently held a roadshow for financiers as it seeks to issue EUR 30m in one-year commercial notes. Golob said the issue would give them access to the secondary financial market and create a liquidity buffer.
The company has earned a reputation as the cheapest provider of electricity in Slovenia. This helped it enter the gas retail market, where it staged a huge upset by undercutting the competition and ultimately forcing all providers to cut prices.
Golob warned that electricity for households, whose price has been unchanged for four years, would go up 8.8% as of March due to grid operator Eles "significantly raising the fees for the import of electricity into Slovenia".
But he was quick to point out that it would still be 10% cheaper than the competition. "We remain the cheapest. We also commit to keep the price unchanged at least through the end of 2014."