Tender for construction of "Kolubara B" and "TENT B3" on January 20th? - ČEZ, EUS and "Verbund" interested in construction of new blocks in power plants

- The Ministry of Energy of Serbia will announce long-expected tender for construction of over 1.5 billion EUR worth of new blocks in power plants on January 20th – Viennese economic daily newspaper "Wirtschafts Blatt" announced.

Citing the well-informed sources, the newspaper points out that the tender will be announced in "Financial Times" and that it will invite all interested investors to take over the documentation for projects "Kolubara B" and "TENT B3".

"Wirtschafts Blatt" points out that Austrian concern "Verbund" is among the investors interested in these tenders and it cited the company’s spokesperson who said that Serbia was on “the investment radar” of that company.

According to the newspaper, project "Kolubara B" anticipates completion of the power plant, while project "TENT" includes construction of new blocks. The newspaper also reminds that Minister of Energy Petar Škundrić estimated the investments at minimum 900m EUR for "Kolubara B" and up to 850m EUR for "TENT B3".

Construction of both blocks should be financed by both the owner of the power plants – state-run EPS, and the investors.

In addition to Austrian "Verbund", other European concerns, such as "ČEZ" and Russian "UES", are also interested in these projects. The tender was supposed to be announced in mid-2007, but its announcement was postponed because of the political turbulences and premature elections.