CEZ’s director of strategy, P. Voboril, has told the Czech-based Energetika magazine that besides CEZ’s participation in the tender sale of a 49% stake in the dominant energy producer in Slovakia, Slovenske elektrarne, the are other possible acquisition targets for CEZ in electricity distribution in Poland and Bulgaria. In Bulgaria, for example, seven distributors with a combined 4.5 mil. customers and sales at the 19 TWh level per year are to be privatized (at 50%-70% stakes).
CEZ’s potential interest in pursuing other central and eastern Europe power assets has been recognized, and given fair prices the acquisitions would be positive since they would improve CEZ’s generation/distributing assets ratio.
While the possible acquisitions in Poland are of a more distant nature, investors have already begun bidding for the Bulgarian distributors.
Jiří Soustružník