Bogdan Tudorache
It is too early to speculate on the price of CEZ’s assets in Romania, and a comparison for the valuation of assets’ purposes with the Bulgarian subsidiary would not be right, as Romanian businesses are more profitable, with the market being much bigger, told energynomics.ro Ondrej Safar, country manager and chairman of CEZ Romania.
He also said that the Romanian market is one of the most stable in the region and CEZ is not in a hurry to sell its profitable assets in Romania. “The shareholders of the group have voted a new strategy, which describes the main directions of development in the future and includes the exit of Romanian assets. We are now starting to work on the preparatory part of the sales process, but it is too early to appreciate the next steps. We are not under the pressure of time to do so in the short term,” says Safar.
Asked if he had already begun negotiations with any firm interested in taking over the assets, Safar explained that he was waiting for “interesting and competitive offers.” “We are happy in Romania and see Romania as one of the most stable countries in the region. I have been to Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, I have been involved in several projects in Poland…. Although there is a perception that there are many changes, it is still a stable environment. In any country there are changes from time to time and any investor will have to take this into account,” said Safar.
Asked by energynomics.ro that the effects of GEO 114 on the company were, Safar said: “I do not like talking about GEO 114 … everyone is complaining. We had to make changes, but due to the measures taken by the company, there is no significant impact … The Romanian market is a stable one.”
In February last year, CEZ signed a contract to sell its assets in Bulgaria to local energy company Inercom, but the country’s anti-monopoly regulator blocked the deal five months later. The deal was then estimated at 320 million euros ($362 million). After the sale fell, Czech utility entered exclusive talks to potentially sell its assets in Bulgaria to Eurohold.