Italy’s energy group Enel has submitted a more balanced bid for Electrica Banat and Electrica Dobrogea in terms of stake price and investment programme, sources close to the privatisation process told Ziarul Financiar. The Italians had initially bid a little amount of money for the shares but committed to very large investments instead.
Enel came up with a five-year business plan for the two regional electricity distribution companies, which takes into account the evolution of the electrical power tariff presented by the National Energy Regulating Authority (ANRE), according to the requirements of the job specifications book, the quoted sources added.
An important element of the Enel-Electrica deal will be undertaking debts worth about 125 million euros accumulated by the two regional distribution branches.
“Enel’s bid is much better balanced and is in line with what happened in Hungary when it privatised its electricity distribution companies. The investment programme accompanying the five-year business programme is more realistic than the amount proposed for 15 years (1.2bn euros),” the quoted sources say. They added the value of the transaction would include three very important factors – the price for the 51% stake in each Electrica branch, the investment programme to be run in the first five years and the debts undertaken at the time of privatisation.
The debts of the two regional electricity distributors are in excess of 2,000bn ROL (50 million euros) in Electrica Dobrogea’s case and of approximately 3,000bn ROL (some 75 million euros) in the case of the Banat branch.
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