OREANDA-NEWS. June 09, 2008. An activity licence issued to Eesti Energia’s subsidiary Solidus allows it to provide investment services in the brokerage and execution of payment orders. Besides this, Solidus may offer fund management and investment advisory services, reported the press-centre of Eesti Energia.

Solidus is the first company trading in electricity in Finland to be issued such a licence by the local Financial Inspectorate. The licence grants Eesti Energia the right to offer investment services via Solidus OY in the entire European Union.

“Besides acting as the customers’ representatives in raw material derivatives markets, we also offer advisory services and consultation related to these markets,” Jukka-Pekka Hakli, the CEO of Solidus, explains. “This newly obtained activity licence increases our standing and credibility as a company.”

The main impact of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) is that financial advisory services have become an investment services provided under an activity licence. The main aim of the directive is the enhancement of the EU internal market. One of the objectives is also to improve and harmonise regulations protecting the customers’ interests.
Eesti Energia acquired the Scandinavian energy sector brokerage company Solidus in 2006, the first company that Eesti Energia acquired outside Estonia. Solidus operates as a member of the energy exchange Nord Pool, managing its customers’ electricity portfolios and offering advisory and expert services related to operating in the electricity market and risk management.