Bulgarian privatization agency short-listed CEZ together with three other bidders in the privatization process of 100% stake in thermal power plant Rousse, Bulgaria. Besides CEZ, Dalkia Int. of Veolia, E.ON and HSE were chosen. Binding bids are expected to be submitted by 3 November. Rousse has installed electricity capacity of 400 MW.
Our view:
This is already the second attempt to sell the asset as the previous sale was scraped in early February 2006 as UES previous winner retracted it EUR 178.2m offer and runner-up CEZ offered only EUR 36.3m. Given the latest price development in the SEE region we expect CEZ will have to offer higher price. Based on installed capacity and last CEZ deal in Bulgaria acquiring TPP Varna we would expect the bids to be roughly some EUR 55-60m.