CEZ preserves revenues in crisis: 370m euros, despite lower energy consumption

CEZ Romania, the local subsidiary of Czech energy group CEZ managed last year to preserve the revenues reported on the Romanian market in 2008, although energy consumption fell by 8.3% in Romania because of the crisis and its effects on the industry.
The Czechs thus managed to make around 370 million euros (9.71 billion Czech crowns) through former Electrica Oltenia, an energy supply and distribution company taken over in 2005. The results are slightly down against the 372 million euros (9.89 billion Czech crowns) recorded in 2008, according to data in the annual report of the CEZ group.
Ever since the beginning of last year, Czechs at CEZ said the crisis would not have a significant impact on the business they run in Romania for a simple reason: in the years that have passed since their privatisation, the big clients in the portfolio of Electrica Oltenia, such as Alro Slatina, and Oltchim became part of the portfolio of other energy suppliers. After the onset of the crisis, and amid a significant decline in consumption of big industrial clients, CEZ remained unaffected, with a large share of energy sales targeting smaller consumers. They include the population, a segment where energy consumption even saw a slight increase, amid a rise in unemployment, which saw people spend more time at home and consume more energy.