E.ON said that the Temelin nuclear plant could cause a delay in CEZ privatization

E.ON, the German utility that has invested heavily in Czech power distributors and has been mentioned as a potential candidate for CEZ privatization, said that the Temelin nuclear plant could cause a delay in CEZ privatization. E.ON’s Czech representative suggested in an interview that the government may have to issue guarantees to the future CEZ buyer as a form of protection from possible future government/public decisions on closing down nuclear plants, and that the issue of spent fuel (i.e., storage cost and disposal) will have to be addressed by the government. These are valid points and we assume that these issues will indeed be part of the CEZ privatization package. We do not expect any fast-track CEZ privatization, and probably neither does the market. The existence of these issues and the need to address them do not affect the importance and benefit of privatization for the value of CEZ’s stock.

(Ondřej Daťka)