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E.ON has started discussions regarding the sale of the electricity and natural gas supply division in Romania with three companies that have shown interest so far. It is about Romgaz, OMV Petrom and the Hungarians from MVM, as sources from the energy sector stated for HotNews.ro. The stake is the more than 3.4 million residential and business customers that E.ON has.
E.ON Romania wants to sell its supply division Photo: Mohamed Ahmed Soliman | Dreamstime.com
The representatives of the companies have not yet commented on the information.
“I cannot comment on discussions that have appeared on sources. Romgaz is a company listed on the stock exchange”, answered Răzvan Popescu, the general director of the largest gas producer in Romania.
HotNews.ro has written since March about Romgaz’s interest in expanding its business in the area of electricity and natural gas supply. “No possibility is excluded,” Popescu said then, when asked if he was analyzing the E.ON option.
OMV Petrom is a producer of crude oil, gas and electricity, but also operates in the area of trading and supply.
The MVM Group is a holding company owned by the Hungarian state, with activities in the entire energy sector, but also in IT, telecommunications, financial and security services. In Romania, the company carries out trading and energy supply activities, through MVM Future Energy Technology.
Why E.ON is selling its electricity and gas business
E.ON Energie is one of the largest suppliers in the energy market, with over 3.4 million household and business customers.
The company’s intention to abandon the supply business has been known in the market since last year. The regulations in the energy sector of the last two years, more precisely the capping-compensation system of bills, made this activity no longer so attractive.
Bills for final consumers were capped, and the state budget is the one that should have borne the difference from the actual price, but payments were made late.
Even now, the state has an arrears of 2.5 billion lei to energy suppliers, based on this legislation, according to data from the Romanian Energy Suppliers Association.
- “Energy and natural gas providers are going through a difficult time. Excessive taxation which killed the wholesale market, legislative instability, 10 months delay in settlement of support scheme are the big challenges for the suppliers. The amount to be settled amounts to approximately 2.5 billion lei.
- Against the background of these problems, we add the fact that the activity of companies has been affected by a deterioration of consumer trust in suppliers”, said Laurentiu Urluescu, president of AFEER, in a conference held at the end of April.
Energy market transactions
E.ON and Engie are the last companies that remained in Romania among those that bought distribution and supply assets during the great privatization of the Distrigaz and Electrica subsidiaries in 2004-2005.
The Germans from E.ON acquired the gas distribution and supply company Distrigaz Nord and the electricity distribution and supply subsidiary Electrica Moldova, and the French from Engie then bought Distrigaz Sud.
The Italians from Enel, who took over the branches of Electrica Muntenia Nord, Banat and Dobrogea, sold their business in Romania last year to the Greeks from PPC.
In turn, the Czechs at CEZ, who bought the Electrica Oltenia subsidiary, sold it in 2021 to investment fund Macquarie, which in turn sold the supply division to Premier Energy earlier this year.
