Hidroelectrica, Romania’s largest electricity producer, has announced plans to buy several supply companies.
Earlier in the electronic public procurement system, Hidroelectrica announced a tender for the selection of a consultant in the process of purchasing electricity and natural gas suppliers.
The novelty is that Hidroelectrica wants to contract consulting services for the purchase of not one, but three supply companies, according to the invitation for the shareholders’ assembly.
Hidroelectrica intends to further develop its supply portfolio, which should enable predictability of revenues and monetization of green certificates it holds.
In that context, the company intends to explore the possibility of growing the supply portfolio through a detailed analysis of a maximum of three companies operating in this sector for the purpose of acquisition, it is stated in the invitation.
Electrica Furnizare, the first “target”
Hydroelectricity has recently entered the segment of electricity supply to households and has by far the most favorable offer on the market, with a price of about 50 euros per MWh for active energy, which is known below the offer of large suppliers.
The company currently has over 100,000 customers.
According to unofficial information, the goal of Hidroelektrika is to take over the supplier Electrica Furnizare, which is the largest supplier in the country with over three million customers, next to Enel.
Electricity is listed on the stock exchange, and the Romanian state is the largest single shareholder.
The idea of this acquisition has existed for a long time and can be interpreted as the government’s desire to provide cheap electricity for as many individual customers as possible.
Hydroelectricity produced about 17 TWh of electricity last year, while national consumption was close to TWh.
Electrica Furnizare made a loss of 78.5 million euros last year, in the conditions of exponential growth of energy supply costs on the market, which the company did not pass on to customers. In addition, suppliers mostly covered subsidies for consumers from their own funds, and the state did not return the money on time – paying only about 20% of these costs. To continue their business, suppliers resorted to bank loans to ensure liquidity.
sources estimate that Electrica’s management may not accept a price of less than 150 million euros for this acquisition.
Source: e-nergia.ro
