Albania is proposing new controls on electricity-asset transfers, company acquisitions and the use of shares and infrastructure as financing security, with potential implications for banks and investors in licensed energy businesses.
The Energy Regulatory Authority (ERE) published two draft regulations on October 29, following legislative amendments under Albania’s Electricity Sector Law No. 59/2026. The proposals cover generation, transmission, distribution, electricity storage and EV charging infrastructure, as well as changes to the ownership or control of licensed companies.
The drafts address when lenders may take security over electricity assets, enforce collateral and gain control of financially distressed projects. They could add more explicit regulatory requirements to financing agreements, shareholder transactions and debt-enforcement processes. Both measures remain under consultation and have not been adopted.
Draft thresholds for electricity-asset transfers
The first draft sets out procedures for obtaining ERE approval before transferring assets used in licensed electricity activities. It covers sales, leases, mortgages, charges and other arrangements affecting the ownership, possession, use or economic control of relevant infrastructure.
The proposal separates transactions requiring prior authorisation from lower-value transfers that may qualify for exemptions. Transfers involving assets valued at up to 150 million Albanian lek, approximately €1.65 million, would not need prior approval if specified conditions are met.
Those conditions include continued compliance with the electricity licence and no risk to service continuity or security of supply. For hydropower installations with installed capacity below 5 MW, a separate threshold applies: prior approval would be required for transactions above 50 million lek, approximately €550,000.
ERE could assess linked transactions together to prevent investors from splitting transfers into smaller deals to avoid review. The proposed exemptions could ease routine commercial transactions while retaining oversight of transfers that may affect electricity infrastructure operations. They would not remove other contractual or legal obligations; permits, concession approvals and additional regulatory requirements may still apply.
Share pledges and lender security
The second draft covers changes in legal status and shareholder control, as well as the use of equity interests as collateral. It is particularly relevant to project finance in which lenders take security over shares in the company holding an electricity licence.
Such security allows banks to enforce contractual rights if a borrower defaults, but enforcement could also transfer control of the licensed company to a creditor or another investor. ERE would review whether the creation or enforcement of security could cause a change of control requiring regulatory approval.
Banks and borrowers would have to disclose the secured obligation, relevant contractual terms, enforcement conditions and potential effects on the company’s ownership and operations. Applicants might also need to provide an assessment of how the licensed activity would continue if the security were enforced.
The draft does not generally prohibit share pledges, project financing or other security arrangements. Instead, it distinguishes structures that do not require approval from those that could produce legally relevant changes in control. For lenders, that distinction affects whether security can be enforced within the timelines and conditions set out in loan documents; collateral that cannot be realised without regulatory authorisation may differ commercially from security that can be enforced immediately.
Ownership reviews and acquisition timetables
The proposed ownership-control regulation sets a 30-working-day review period from submission of complete documentation, subject to applicable legal provisions for suspensions or extensions. Applicants would need to identify existing and proposed ownership structures, including direct and indirect shareholders and ultimate controlling persons.
ERE could also examine the financial and organisational capacity of a proposed new controlling shareholder. Share transfers, corporate restructurings and changes in controlling investors would therefore require closer attention to regulatory documentation.
For acquisition investors, the requirements could affect transaction schedules. Purchase agreements may need to make completion conditional on ERE approval, while financing agreements could set out regulatory cooperation requirements, permitted ownership changes and the consequences of approval delays.
The issue is especially relevant to deals involving multiple holding companies, international financing vehicles or different classes of investors. These structures are common in infrastructure investment but can make ultimate control harder to identify.
Approval and enforcement in distressed projects
Security rules become particularly important when an electricity project faces financial difficulty. After a borrower defaults, lenders may seek control of the project company, a transfer of its assets or a sale to another investor; the financial value of their security partly depends on how quickly and effectively it can be enforced.
Regulatory review can safeguard system security and continuity of licensed activities, while also affecting the timing of a restructuring. Under the proposed Albanian rules, relevant transactions would have to demonstrate continued compliance with electricity-service obligations and licensing requirements.
Banks would need to assess collateral enforceability alongside operational continuity. Technical advisers may have to determine whether a proposed new owner or operator has the resources to maintain infrastructure safely, while legal advisers would need to establish which changes trigger approval and how a transaction can comply.
This could increase demand for integrated legal, financial and engineering due diligence. The proposals therefore make the practical enforceability of security relevant alongside the ability to maintain project operations.
Relevance to neighbouring Southeast European markets
Albania’s proposals are relevant to Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and North Macedonia, where energy infrastructure financing often involves special-purpose project companies, bank loans and security over project shares or assets. Licensing, concession and collateral rules differ among these countries, so Albania’s framework would not apply directly elsewhere.
The underlying financing questions are similar: banks need to know whether electricity assets can be sold, refinanced or transferred after a default, and investors need to understand how ownership changes affect operating licences and project approvals. In Montenegro, these issues can be especially important when infrastructure deals involve concessions or internationally financed project companies.
In Serbia, the questions are relevant to renewable-project acquisitions, refinancing and security packages provided to lenders. More broadly, the regional opportunity identified by the proposals is to clarify ownership-change procedures while preserving lenders’ rights and licensees’ operational responsibilities.
Ownership and collateral as investment risks
The proposed regulations reflect that electricity infrastructure cannot always be treated as ordinary commercial property. An asset may have technical value and commercial viability, but its suitability as security depends on the legal rights attached to its licence, concession arrangements and operating obligations.
Investors would need to consider ownership-transfer and collateral-enforcement rules alongside generation capacity, expected revenues and construction risks when valuing a project. For lenders, the central issue is whether an enforceable security interest can be converted into operational control or sale proceeds through a predictable regulatory process.
ERE’s proposals seek to clarify the procedures and define exemptions and review requirements, while the final commercial implications will depend on the regulations adopted after consultation. The proposed approach places regulatory approval, continuity of ownership and collateral enforceability at the centre of electricity infrastructure financing, issues that banks and investors across Southeast Europe will need to address before committing capital.
