Bulgaria's financial regulator to check Eurohold over CEZ deal

EuroHold Bulgaria AD

24/04/2019 10:50

SOFIA, April 24 (Reuters) - Bulgaria's regulator said on
Wednesday it was examining Eurohold  4EH.BB  to establish its
financial situation given its bid to acquire the Bulgarian
assets of Czech utility CEZ  CEZP.PR .
    Eurohold, active in insurance and asset management, entered
into exclusive talks to acquire CEZ's assets in the Balkan
country that include a power distributor that provides
electricity to more than 3 million Bulgarians last week.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL5N21Z1V8 
    "The key objective is to check the financial situation and
the capacity of the holding company in relation to future
acquisitions, including CEZ Distribution Bulgaria  3CZ.BB  and
CEZ Electro Bulgaria  1CZ.BB ," Bulgaria's Financial Supervision
Commission said in a statement.   
    "By law, power distributors are part of the European
critical infrastructure with a direct relation to national
security," it said, adding that it would also carry out checks
at key companies that are part of Eurohold.
    Electricity costs are politically sensitive in the Balkan
nation of 7.1 million people that is one of the poorest in the
European Union.
    In 2018, CEZ signed a contract to sell its assets in
Bulgaria to local energy company Inercom, but Bulgaria's
anti-monopoly regulator blocked the deal five months later. The
deal was estimated at 320 million euros ($362 million) at the
time.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N21J51Z
    CEZ terminated the contract with Inercom this month, blaming
Bulgaria for the failure of the deal.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nP7N1XX01D      

 (Reporting by Tsvetelia Tsolova
Editing by Edmund Blair)
 ((tsvetelia.tsolova@thomsonreuters.com; +359-2-93-99-731;))