The Board of Romanian state-controlled hydropower company Hidroelectrica green-lighted the bid for electricity supply firm CEZ Vanzare, taken over by the Australian investment fund Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets (MIRA) from Czech group CEZ at the end of 2020, E-nergia.ro announced quoting a company's press release.

The target company was evaluated by MIRA, at the time it took it over, at EUR 15 mln.

E-nergia.ro reported this spring that the Australian investment fund plans to divest the supply firm and keep the other assets taken over from CEZ.

At this moment, the Romanian electricity suppliers accuse challenging cash flow problems caused by the Government not paying timely the subsidies.

The biggest impact on Hidroelectrica's business derives not from the price paid for CEZ Vanzare (supposedly low, considering the market circumstances) but from the subsequent enlargement of its customer base: CEZ Vanzare serves some 75,000 non-residential customers and 1.3 mln residential customers. For comparison, Hidroelectrica serves 21,000 large customers (residential and non-residential) and 0.3 mln residential customers.

The takeover would make the hydropower group (with a market share of some 30% in normal years) one of the major electricity suppliers as well. At this moment, Hidroelectrica sells electricity to households at the lowest price on the market: just below the cap set by the Government (above which the state provided subsidies to the supply companies).

MIRA took over CEZ Vânzare and all other assets, including a distribution network in the southern part of the country, a wind farm in Dobrogea and micro hydro plants in Caraşi county, from CEZ in a transaction worth RON 4.7 bln (EUR 1 bln).

iulian@romania-insider.com

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