THE SLOVAK cabinet approved the completion of the privatization of the remaining 51-percent stake in the western Slovak energy distributor, Západoslovenská energetika (ZSE), the Pravda daily wrote.
The cabinet agreed that 41 percent of the stake would go to E.ON Energie, a German company that already owns a 49-percent stake in ZSE. The remaining 10 percent will be put up for sale on the capital markets.
The price that E.ON Energie will pay for the 41-percent stake has not yet been set. It can be established in two ways.
One way is to calculate it on the basis of the price that E.ON paid three years ago when acquiring the 49-percent stake plus market evaluation.
The other way to calculate the cost would be to establish the current market value of the company.
Tatiana Lesajová, spokeswoman for the Slovak privatization agency Fond Národného Majetku, which currently owns the stake, said that the investor would pay the higher of the two prices.
In 2002 E.ON Energie paid Sk14.1 billion (€372 million) for the 49-percent stake.
