ČEZ ready to withdraw bid for electric plant in Kosovo

Czech national electricity giant ČEZ is ready to withdraw its bid on the tender for construction of steam power plant in Kosovo if local authorities fail to improve the conditions.

The Manager for Integrations and Acquisitions in ČEZ, Vladimir Šmalc, denied the writing of the media in Kosovo that ČEZ had already withdrawn the bid, but he said that it would definitely be withdrawn if the Government of Kosovo did not improve the conditions.

According to Mr. Šmalc, ČEZ is not satisfied with some legal guarantess and financial terms related to that tender for construction of the 2,000 MW power plant, the job worth 3.5 billion EUR, but he did not specify what exactly bothers company ČEZ.

The main competitors, German concerns RWE and EnBW, have already withdrawn from the tender because of the terms. In addition to company ČEZ, the companies that are still interested in the deal of the century in Kosovo’s energy sector are Italian "Enel" and Greek company "Sencap".

Although ČEZ had some business failures in the Balkans, its crucial direction of expansion, such as, for example, construction of steam power plant Gacko, the Czech company is interested in new investments and privatizations in that region in spite of the crisis.

At the end of the last year ČEZ owned 39 companies outside the Czech Republic and had total of 7,420 employees, while the investments in foreign manufacturers and distributors of electric power in 2008 brought ČEZ the net profit of 400m USD.