The Slovak Finance Minister, Pavol Rusko, said that he will probably recommend the winner of the SE tender to the cabinet for a final decision at the beginning of next week. Rusko was originally expected to make his recommendation either on 29/9 or 6/10 before moving the date to 24/9. He said that so far he cannot confirm nor exclude any result. Note that the privatization advisor recommended Enel as the winner with a EUR 840 m bid. CEZ came second with a bid of EUR 690 m. CEZ reportedly submitted a second bid worth EUR 1.19 bn with three conditions, which the privatization advisor found unacceptable. Rusko said earlier that he was happy with the result and would have to find serious drawbacks in the bids to modify the recommendation.
Tomáš Gatěk