Italian group Enel could give up on the sale of its electricity distribution assets in Romania if they don’t get the EUR 1.8 billion price they are asking for the package, according to official sources.

“Enel wants to sell to cover some of its debt and needs to get EUR 1.8 billion from the sale of the three electricity distributions in Romania. Our valuations indicate that they couldn’t get more than EUR 1.2-1.3 billion,” said the same sources, quoted by Agerpres newswire.

Enel asked for a EUR 500 million bonus to sell all the assets as a package, as they represent more than a third of Romania’s electricity distribution market, but the sale can’t be done this way because the Romanian state opposes it. A Chinese group would have been willing to pay the EUR 1.8 billion price tag for Enel’s assets, but the state opposed the transaction, as it doesn’t want the Chinese to take over Enel Distributie Dobrogea, which distributes energy to the Dobrogea region, where an American military base is located.

This is why the Romanian state’s officials recently said that Enel Distributie Dobrogea is a strategic asset and tried to negotiate with the Italians that state owned Nuclearelectrica and Electrica will take over this company. The two sides haven’t reached an agreement yet.

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editor@romania-insider.com