According to Horáková, the sale includes a total of seven companies, including a distribution company, energy sales and the Fântânele Cogealac wind farm. CEZ will keep only the High-Tech Clima company dealing with activities in modern energy services (ESCO) and the business company CEZ Trade Romania in Romania. The consortium of owners led by the buyer of the MIRA fund is, among other things, the owner of GasNet, which includes the majority of gas distribution in the Czech Republic.
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According to Horáková, CEZ’s exclusive investment team at Société Générale, together with the Czech team of Komerční banka and the Romanian team of BRD – Groupe Société Générale, was ČEZ’s exclusive advisor in the sale. “MIRA’s offer was the most attractive of all the bids submitted, which was confirmed by an independent assessment of the value of the companies sold,” the spokeswoman said.
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The sale is in line with ČEZ’s new strategy, approved last June. It counts on the gradual sale of assets in Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey and partly in Poland. An exception is companies focused on ESCOs, which ČEZ wants to develop at home and abroad. According to earlier information, the company wants to obtain tens of billions of crowns from the sale of foreign companies, which it will use for the construction of renewable sources and new nuclear units as well as the modernization of the distribution network.
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CEZ’s expansion abroad has been repeatedly described as unsuccessful by Prime Minister Andrej Babis (YES). The majority owner of ČEZ is the state, which owns 70 percent of the company’s shares through the Ministry of Finance. The company entered the Romanian energy market in 2005 with the acquisition of the distribution company Electrica Oltenia, which operates in the southwestern part of the country. Between 2008 and 2012, ČEZ built the largest onshore wind farm in Europe with an installed capacity of 600 megawatts in Romania in the Fântânele and Cogealac locations. In addition, in 2011 it purchased and modernized the system of four dam reservoirs and small hydroelectric power plants Reşita.
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MIRA is part of the Australian Macquarie Group, a global provider of banking, financial and advisory services and investment fund management. MIRA is the part of Macquarie that manages assets. Since 2017, the fund of the Australian bank Macquarie has also owned a 31 percent stake in EP Infrastructure (EPIF), which is one of the main components of the Energy and Industrial Holding (EPH) entrepreneur Daniel Křetínský. The Group is also a shareholder of České Radiokomunikace.
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