Industry Minister Gregr said over the weekend that the Cabinet would at the end of the summer discuss whether to hire an adviser for CEZ privatization. The ministries of industry and finance, the key ministries in the privatization, have yet to find common ground on how or when to privatize CEZ, whether to hire a privatization adviser, and whether to spin off CEZ’s transmission subsidiary before privatization. A decision in August/September to hold a tender for an advisor would be, in our view, the maximum achievable in the short term (expecting any progress in the near term on the more substantial issues of privatization and transmission grid seems unrealistic). Such a decision by Cabinet would be a modest but tangible step toward CEZ’s privatization, and would likely support investor interest in CEZ. At this stage, however, it is advisable to wait: the outcome is still uncertain and the Cabinet has a track record of postponing key decisions. The Cabinet’s summer recess, which begins next week, continues until the end of August.
(Ondřej Daťka)