State-owned Hidroelectrica submits letter of intent for CEZ assets in Romania

Romania’s largest power producer Hidroelectrica, 80%-controlled by the state, has submitted a non-binding letter of intent for purchasing the assets of Czech utility group CEZ in Romania, Hidroelectrica CEO Bogdan Badea confirmed at an energy conference, according to Economica.net.

The interest for the assets is high, CEZ speakesperson Ladislav Kriz said quoted by Profit.ro.

CEZ announced in August its decision to sell the assets in Romania, which include an electricity distribution subsidiary, an electricity supply subsidiary that has 1.4 million customers, a 600MW wind farm in Dobrogea - the biggest in Romania, and four micro hydropower plants in South-Western Romania with an installed capacity of 22 MW.

“We have submitted a letter of intent. In principle, we are interested in all the assets. We are now in the process of signing the non-disclosure agreement,” said Badea.

The final deadline for submitting non-binding offers is the end of November, he detailed, evaluating the deadline as “a bit tight”.

CEZ will begin the process of selling its assets in Romania in October and wants the transfer to be finalized or close to completion in 2022, company officials confirmed for local news agency Agerpres on September 9.

"Market testing (the process currently taking place) precedes the invitation to receive non-binding offers, which is a preliminary phase for the asset sale process. After the market testing, we will evaluate the interest expressed, and we will officially begin the process of selling the assets in October," the company’s officials explained in early September.

(Photo: Hidroelectrica Facebook Page)