ALL seven companies that had previously expressed interest in buying a 90 percent stake of the steam-gas company Paroplynovy Cyklus (PPC) delivered binding offers for the entire company to the state-run privatisation agency the FNM, the TASR news wire reported.
Originally, a public tender was announced for the sale of only 90 percent of PPC. But the Slovak government later decided the stake should be privatised along with the 10 percent minority stake held by the soon-to-be privatised national power utility Slovenské elektrárne (SE).
The SE management announced it would agree to the sale only if the offered price were higher than Sk600 million (€14.7 million).
Two domestic financial groups, J&T and 1. Garantovaná, have confirmed their interest in buying PPC.
According to information published by local media, the potential bidders also include the Czech group PPF; Slovak regional energy distributor ZSE; Energetika Třinec (Czech Republic); E.ON Energie (Germany); Dalkia (France); and Aare-Tessin AG für Elektrizität (Switzerland), in cooperation with Penta, a Slovak financial group.
Shortly after the first offers had been submitted, Slovak Economy Minister Pavol Rusko expressed concern about the conduct of the tender, saying it was leaning towards choosing a winner in advance. He was also unhappy that financial groups were so closely involved.
