Bogdan Tudorache

After Fondul Proprietatea announced its intention to sell its stake in Enel in Romania, the investment funds interested in the transaction also showed interest in minority packages owned by Enel, sources told energynomics.ro.

“These are large international investment funds, specialized in asset management, not in energy management,” the source said. “There are talks, large investment funds prefer to have significant minority packages, Enel will retain the majority ownership and management of Romanian companies. For the time being, however, I do not think there are negotiations, but only talks.”

Enel officials did not comment on the possible deal.

Last year, the head of the Enel Group, Francesco Starace, , asked whether the group was considering selling the business in Romania or listing it on the Bucharest Stock Exchange, that there was no intention to list the companies on the stock exchange, as for the sale “any asset in our company may be for sale if the price is right”.

Two years ago, FP managed to sell its stake in Electrica’s subsidiaries for a total of 752 million lei. But it is hard to assess at this point how much it would count on its stake in the Enel subsidiaries, the quoted source said.

According to the Italian press, the Romanian assets generated revenues of about EUR 1.2 billion in 2018 and an EBITDA of EUR 230 million (profit before tax, tax and amortization).

According to Il Sole 24 Ore and money.it, Romanian assets put up for sale could be worth a billion euros, and Macquarie, Singapore GIC and the Kuwait Wren House Infrastructure Fund are among the funds.

Also CEZ announced that it could sell its stake in Romania without giving further details. Sources told, however, energynomics.ro that it’s all more about political ambitions and the sale must be first approved by the shareholders.