CEZ said that should it finally buy the three Bulgarian distributors, which is generally considered as very likely after it won the privatization tender recently, it might also be interested in Bulgarian power production (three plants are to be privatized soon). Note that the purchase agreement for the power distributors is expected to be signed in one month.
Separately, today is the deadline for investors to submit their bids for CEZ’s 34% stake in CEPS, the domestic transmission grid operator. CEZ is obliged to sell the stake by fall 2004 due to a ruling by the Anti-Monopoly Office after CEZ acquired eight regional distributors last year. Should CEZ not sell the stake in the ongoing public tender, it could then accept the state's bid of CZK 6.5bn, which thus represents the minimum selling price. We expect the price to correspond with the price received by CEZ for the 66% stake sold last year (CZK 15.2bn), possibly adjusted for the majority premium. This would imply a slightly higher price than the amount offered by the state.
Also separately, CEZ is holding a conference call on its H1 2004 results today at 4 pm CET, chaired by CFO P. Voboril; dial-in No. +44 20 7162 0187.
Jan Hajek