UOKiK with ‘major reservation’ on PGE takeover of EDF assets

Poland's anti-trust body UOKiK has “major reservations” about state-owned utility PGE takeover of the Polish assets of French utility EDF. UOKiK will publish its concerns later this month after it finishes the second stage of the proceedings. The additional stage was launched as UOKiK wanted to run market analysis of the transaction as it thinks it would have an impact on PGE’s competitors. The transaction could still go through but under certain conditions. “From the legal point of view there are several possibilities: the consent could be issued due to transaction's importance for the economy, the buyer might be obliged to sell a portion of purchased assets within a time frame or to give access to another party to the infrastructure,” UOKiK’s President Marek Niechciał said. After the major reservations are issued, PGE will have two weeks to respond, with an option to extend the deadline by further two weeks. Bank in May, PGE agreed to buy Polish assets of French EDF for PLN 4.5 billion. The value of the transaction includes PLN 2.45 billion in equity value and PLN 2.06 billion in debt and is expected to be finalized the deal by January 2, 2018. EDF Polska owns four power and heat-generating plants and a coal-fueled power plant, as well as EDF's 50 percent stake in Kogeneracja, which owns another four power and heating plants.