Czech power generator CEZ said it would submit a preliminary bid for minority stake in Slovakia’s dominant power producer Slovenske Elektrarne within a few days or weeks after it was allowed to join a tender earlier this week.

The government first planned to split the company’s assets into nuclear and conventional energy divisions, after all bidders would be interested only in the non-nuclear part of the firm. However, CEZ has suggested that it wishes to bid for the entire utility, which made the government accept it to the tender following the closure of the bidding term.

“As far as we know, we are the only bidder interested in buying Slovenske Elektrarne as a whole,” CEZ said. CEZ is a stateowned firm that last year attempted to gain shares in the eastern Slovak electricity distributor Vychodoslovenska Energetika.

In the country’s last major privatisation deal, the government has put up for grab 49% and management control in Slovenske Elektrarne and had received eight indicative bids in the tender that closed last September. But the sales process has been delayed for political reasons last year.

According to PricewaterhouseCoopers, the government’s advisor to the deal, the bulk of bidders wanted to buy only conventional assets, which would leave the company’s controversial nuclear facilities and the bulk of its debts in state hands.

(IntelliNews 18.vii.03)