assets sold to Greek Ppc for over 1.2 billion – Corriere.it

The maxi-disposal plan of the Enel group aimed at debt reduction comes to life. After the first move with the sale of two assets in Argentina for 102 million dollars, the announcement of the sale of all assets in Romania arrived in the night between 8 and 9 March, which is worth more than ten times as much. The agreement provides for the sale to the Greek company Public Power Corporation of all the shares held by the group in Romania. The agreement – reads the note released shortly before 4 in the morning on 9 March – provides that Ppc will pay a total consideration of around 1,260 million euros, corresponding to around 1,900 million euros in terms of enterprise value (referred to 100%). Furthermore, the total consideration is subject to adjustments usual for this type of transaction and to a mechanism of earn-out concerning a possible additional payment based on the future value of the retail business.

The strategic plan

The transaction is in line with the group’s current strategic plan, which envisages achieving the repositioning of Enel in the fastest growing countries where it has an integrated presence, i.e. Italy, Spain, the United States, Brazil, Chile and Colombia and activities in non-strategic countries to reduce debt, which at the end of 2022 had already fallen by 10 billion compared to 69.7 billion as at 30 September 2022. Most of the plan is expected to be completed by the end of 2023 and another Country from which Enel will discontinue operations is Peru. The sale of all our activities in Romania is a further step forward in the implementation of the disposal plan announced at the presentation of Enel’s 2023-2025 strategic plan, said the CEO Francesco Starace. We are proud of the results we have been able to achieve since our entry into the country in 2005 and we recognize the commitment and dedication of our colleagues, which have allowed us to become one of Romania’s leading integrated energy operators. We are convinced that a leading international player such as PPC will be able to successfully continue the work started.

The positive effect on debt

Overall, Enel expects that the transaction will generate a total positive effect on the group’s consolidated net debt of around 1.7 billion euros, of which around 0.1 billion euros in 2022 and the remainder in 2023, together with an cumulative negative in 2022-2023 on the net profit of the reported group of approximately 1.4 billion euros, of which approximately 0.6 billion euros related to the release of the foreign exchange reserve, to be accounted for in 2023. The completion of the sale, expected by the third quarter of 2023, subject to some usual precedent conditions for this type of transaction, including approval by the competent competition authorities.