CEZ won the tender in Bulgaria for the Western group of 3 distributors (Sofia, Pleven and Stolichno, with the latter significantly outperforming the other two in terms of ROIC and size of valuation) for EUR 281m. The distributors currently have 1.9m clients, annual sales of EUR 310m or 7.5TWh (CEZ’s majority-owned domestic distributors have combined annual sales of more than 33 TWh or EUR 1.7bn). Based on earlier indications, this has been expected. The transaction is expected to be concluded in several months. Source: CTK, CEZ.
Deputy Industry Minister V. Srba said that the acquisitions (besides in Bulgaria, CEZ is also bidding in Slovakia and possibly in Romania) could certainly affect future dividend payments, which may be at the lower end of the planned CZK 4.5-9 per-share range. He also said that an extra dividend this year would not be “useful” and that nobody is preparing such a dividend. Source: Bloomberg.
Jan Hajek