Four companies bid for 25% stake in G-8 energy group

The State Treasury has received four binding offers for a strategic stake in the country's largest electricity distributor, the northern G-8 group, the Ministry announced on Friday. The companies bidding for a 25% stake in the energy distributor are Electrabel (a unit of French giant Suez), Spanish Iberdrola, German E.ON and Polish local telecoms and power conglomerate Elektrim. The number of bidders was below the Ministry's expectation of six offers, as two firms, Spanish Endesa and Irish ESB, backed out of the deal. The G-8 group, the only distributor to change hands this year, sells around 17% of the country's power, supplying electricity to 2.6 million out of 14.7 million customers. The Ministry expects the winner to invest heavily in the group, in anticipation of the full energy market liberalization in 2005. Now ailing, the Polish energy sector is said to be potentially very profitable. In related news, the Ministry has granted exclusive negotiating rights to buy a strategic stake in medium-sized southern power plant Skawina, to US Public Service Enterprise Group. Skawina supplies a fifth of the power needs of the city of Krakow. (Prawo i Gospodarka, June 30-July 1, p. 3, Gazeta Wyborcza, June 30-July 1, p. 24, Reuters) J.K.