Electrica sits on a mountain of cash: 300m euros

State-held Electrica, the second-largest energy distributor and supply company on the Romanian market says it has 300 million euros in cash left in its accounts, which mainly come from the privatisation of Muntenia Sud, a deal that saw the Romanian state collect around 395 million euros, with the remaining sum (out of the 820 million euros paid) going into a capital increase. The money is now being set aside and could be used for financing the company’s planned energy generation projects. With 300 million euros, Electrica could build a 200-MW a power plant running on gas and would be left with funds for an almost 90-MW wind farm. Not much money is left from previous privatisations of Electrica Oltenia, Moldova, Banat and Dobrogea, which fetched the state 114 million euros, with the money being used for paying Electrica’s debts, in 2006. “Now, we have 303 million euros left in our accounts, after the privatisation of Muntenia Sud brought us around 395 million euros. We paid out dividends worth 12 million euros, a 57 million-euro profit tax for this transaction, we performed capital increases for Electrica’s non-privatised branches, and conducted a restructuring of the company, which cost 20 million euros,” says Ioan Folescu, Electrica’s general manager.