Rome, 5 June 2006 ¡V Enel has won the call for tenders organised by the Romanian government for the sale of a majority stake in the Electrica Muntenia Sud power distribution company (EMS), beating out offers from numerous major European energy groups.
Enel offered £á820 million to acquire 67.5% of EMS. The price includes both the sale of the shares and a simultaneous capital increase. The closing is expected to take place in the next few weeks, once the Romanian government gives its approval.
EMS serves the capital Bucharest and the surrounding regions of Ilfov and Giurgiu. It has about 2,000 employees, and in 2005 it had revenues of about £á398 million and net income of some £á20 million.
With this transaction, Enel now serves about 2.5 million customers in Romania: EMS serves more than 1.1 million customers, while the other two companies acquired last year, Electrica Banat (the Timishoara region) and Electrica Dobrogea (the Costanza region), together have 1.4 million customers.
Given the significant Italian presence in Romania, especially firms from the North-East, Enel, in agreement with the trade associations Confindustria and Unioncamere of Veneto, has opened an office in Padua and created a network of account managers in Romania specifically devoted to providing assistance and consulting for the Italian companies operating in that country.
Together with electricity distribution operations in Spain, Enel now serves more than 3 million customers in Europe, nearly double the number of customers that Enel transferred to the former municipal power companies as part of the liberalisation of the Italian electricity market.
The acquisition of EMS is part of Enel¡Šs growth strategy in Eastern and Central Europe, where the Group is already present:
- in Bulgaria with the Maritza III power station, the largest in the country;
- in Slovakia, where Enel recently acquired 66% of Slovenske Elektrarne, the country¡Šs leading power generator with 83% of the market;
- in Russia, where Enel operates a 450 MW combined cycle plant serving St. Petersburg and has a stake in the leading electricity trading company in the country.
Enel also intends to participate in upcoming tenders for the privatization of companies that own generation assets and distribution grids or for the completion of nuclear power plants in Romania, Bulgaria, Poland, Turkey and Russia.
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