Due to the flood-related expenses the state will bear and given the budget deficit planned for next year, the Cabinet could decide to privatize CEZ earlier then expected, we believe.
CEZ said that some its hydro-power plants were destroyed in the flooding, and that operations at one of its coal-power plants was also affected; this should not result in capacity shortages, however (hydro-power plants accounted for only 3% of CEZ’s total electricity supply in 2001).
Some of the regional distributors (CEZ is to acquire the state’s stakes in all eight distributors, probably by year-end 2002) will have to repair the flood-damaged distribution network, and sales could be negatively affected by production halts in flooded areas.
Jiri Soustruznik