Endesa gets a cosy date with DO
Madrid-based Endesa has been given the exclusive right to hold talks to purchase between 10 and 85 percent of the Zespół Elektrowni Dolna Odra power plant, by the Polish Treasury Ministry. Endesa has just four weeks to conclude a deal with the Czarnow-based plant, which is Poland's fifth-largest electricity producer.
The decision by the Treasury Ministry knocks Italy's Enel and Belgium's Electrabel - and its Polish subsidiary Elektrownia Polaniec - out of the privatization process.
Dolna Odra is the biggest energy producer in Poland's northwestern coastal area and is made up of three coal-powered plants - Elektrownia Dolna Odra, Elektrownia Pomorzany and Elektrownia Szczecin. The plants have a combined generating capacity of 1.95GW and a six-percent slice of the Polish market. The Treasury Ministry was tight-lipped as to the value of the company.
Endesa has four weeks to conclude a deal with labor unions. In 2004 Dolna Odra had an unaudited net profit of $4.4 (zł.15) million on sales of zł.1.185 billion, up from sales of zł.1.180 billion in 2003.
