At the General Meeting of Geoplin, the subsidiary of Petrol, (74.34% share), shareholders were informed about the preliminary findings from the financial and legal review and the scenarios concerning the possible consequences of natural gas buy-in and the need for additional liquid assets and capital until the end of the year. Petrol holds ownership of Geoplin jointly with the Republic of Slovenia, which holds a 25.01% ownership, and two other minor shareholders. By publishing this announcement for Geoplin, Petrol is announcing that these current measures will affect them greatly in the current financial year despite potential compensation from the Government.

At the General Meeting of Geoplin, the subsidiary of Petrol, (74.34% share), shareholders were informed about the preliminary findings from the financial and legal review and the scenarios concerning the possible consequences of natural gas buy-in and the need for additional liquid assets and capital until the end of the year. Possibly, there would be a need for additional liquid assets and additional capital until the end of the year.

To remind you, at the end of FY21 Geoplin had EUR 301.8m worth of assets out of which current assets make up the majority (EUR 264m), which are mostly composed of operating receivables and current financial assets. The equity of Geoplin amounted to EUR 159.6m, while the Company reported a net profit amounting to EUR 18.6m in 2021.

In 2022 gas prices continued to grow because of the war in Ukraine and economic sanctions imposed on Russia, which all ended in decreased gas supply from Russia. This has resulted in all-time high prices of gas and the Slovenian government issued regulation in which it is setting the gas prices for households to a maximum of EUR 0.073 kWh and for social services and small entrepreneurs at EUR 0.079 kWh. The regulation is valid from August lasting until end of August next year. Current prices of gas stand at 3x higher than regulated prices so some of the Slovenian distributors are cancelling their contacts with customers. Petrol distributes gas in Slovenia through Geoplin and they oversee 1/7th of gas distribution. Petrol has announced that they plan to remain a provider of energy supply in this market. In 2021 Petrol distributed 1.4 TWh (1,400,000 MWh) of gas and in 1H 2022 another 750,900 MWh (+3% YoY). So, in 2H 2022 they are looking to distribute app. 700,000 MWh. The Slovenian government has asked the company Plinovodi, the state-owned gas transmission network operator to prepare a potential mechanism to determine the entitlement to compensation for the companies which could suffer substantial loss because of the temporary natural gas price control measure. So, by publishing this announcement for Geoplin, Petrol is announcing that these current measures will affect them greatly in the current financial year despite potential compensation from the Government.