The minister will be joined by the chief executive officers of some of the largest energy companies in Romania, distribution firm Electrica and nuclear power producer Nuclearelectrica.
In July, Enel announced that it plans to sell, by the end of the year, its electricity distribution and supply operations in Romania and Slovakia, as part of a debt cut program.
Nicolescu told a news conference Tuesday that the Romanian government considers energy distribution a strategic sector especially in the Dobrogea region (southeastern Romania, near the Black Sea), considering what is currently happening east of Romania (the Ukraine situation).
“We do not encourage anyone to file an offer to buy the Dobrogea distribution company, especially when Romanian state-owned companies are interested,” Nicolescu said.
Enel, which controls a third of the local electricity distribution market, bought from the Romanian state three distribution companies: the one in Dobrogea, the former Electrica Banat (serving customers in southwestern Romania), and another one covering the southern aea of the country, including capital city Bucharest.
The sale would involve the 64.4% stake in Enel Distributie Muntenia SA and Enel Energie Muntenia SA, the 51% stake in Enel Distributie Banat SA, Enel Distributie Dobrogea SA and Enel Energie SA, as well as the 100% interest in the services company Enel Romania Srl (held by Enel through Enel Investment Holding BV).
According to Enel, these companies manage a power grid of about 91,000 kilometers in the regions in which they operate, distributing about 14 TWh of electricity a year (with a domestic market share of 34%) and selling nearly 9 TWh a year to about 2.6 million customers.
In 2013, Enel companies in Romania reported revenue of EUR1,118 million and EBITDA of EUR289 million (consolidated figures). Enel also owns several renewable energy projects in the Eastern European country, but these assets are not on the list of disposable assets.