The Board of Romanian electricity producer Hidroelectrica has approved the decision to takeover electricity supplier CEZ Vanzare, currently owned by the Australian investment fund Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets (MIRA).
At the time of the acquisition in 2020, MIRA evaluated the supplier at 15 million euros. In May, media reported that MIRA is considering the sale of CEZ Vanzare, mainly due to financial pressures generated by the “cap and subsidy” schemes enforced by the Romanian Government.
This acquisition will significantly enlarge Hidroelectrica’s customer base. Currently, the company has some 300,000 residential and 21,000 commercial consumers in its portfolio, but the takeover of CEZ Vanzare would add additional 75,000 commercial and 1.3 million residential consumers.
At this moment, Hidroelectrica is offering the cheapest electricity supply in the country for residential consumers, slightly below the cap set by the Government.
In April 2021, MIRA completed the acquisition of the Romanian assets of Czech energy company CEZ for around one billion euros. CEZ’ assets in Romania comprise of seven companies, including electricity distribution networks, electricity and gas supplier and the Fantanele Cogealac wind farm.
