CEZ’s board of directors is today expected to decide whether to launch Constitutional Court appeal of a recent Anti-Monopoly Office ruling restraining CEZ’s merger with domestic power distributors. Should the board forgo an appeal, which is the course expected, the state’s stakes in eight regional power distributors would be transferred to CEZ, and CEZ’s 66% stake in CEPS, the transmission-grid operator, would be transferred to the state on Tuesday, April 1.
Subsequently, according to the AMO’s decision, CEZ must then sell three minority stakes and one majority stake in the distributors (the timeframe of which has not been disclosed to public). CEZ is to pay CZK 6 bil. to the state in 2003; it will pay in total CZK 32 bil. for the stakes, partly via the transfer of the 66% stake in CEPS, which is now being appraised, with the rest to be paid in cash in equal annual installments by 2006. In addition, CEZ will pay approx. CZK 4 bil. in capital-gains tax on the CEPS sale.
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