German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said on Friday that the issue of the Temelin nuclear power plant in southern Bohemia would not affect the Czech Republic’s planned accession to the European Union. Positive news; may affect the stock.
CEZ said that nearly 100% (some 7.6 TWh) of its second offer of electricity supply for 2002 was accepted by regional distributors. Expected; neutral.
Separately, the Prague Business Journal reports today that some bidders for CEZ that were not short-listed by the government’s privatization committee, including Sweden's Vattenfall, are asking the European Commission to examine the entire privatization procedure. Vattenfall already expressed such an intention, therefore it is neutral-to-negative news at the moment, though there is potential for a significant negative impact if objections from the EC cause privatization delays.
(Jiri Soustruznik)