The German company RWE has suspended the sale of gas storage facilities in the Czech Republic. After the resignation of the semi-state company ČEZ, only the Energy and Industrial Holding (EPH) of billionaire Daniel Křetínský remained as interested. This was stated by today’s Hospodářské noviny (HN). The deadline for submission of bids was to expire on Thursday.
RWE started selling the tanks a week ago. She first said that she had received favorable feedback from potential applicants from Europe. According to HN, in the end, the Hungarian state-owned company MVM and the KKCG group of billionaire Karel Komárek did not submit an offer alongside ČEZ. “The competition has been suspended and we are waiting to see what will happen next,” the source said diary.
According to Jiří Gavor, CEO of the consulting company ENA, the cancellation of the sale is a logical step in a situation where only one applicant remains. “The EPH Group is known to specialize in low-cost acquisitions. It has never bought expensive, on the contrary,” Gavor told the newspaper. Neither RWE nor EPH officially commented on the meeting.
Six storage tanks belong to the subsidiary RWE Gas Storage CZ, which is the largest operator of gas storage tanks in the Czech Republic. The storage tanks will hold 2.7 billion cubic meters of gas, which corresponds to the consumption of the Czech Republic in two winter months.
In December, the German newspaper Handelsblatt stated, referring to informed sources, that RWE expects a profit of about 500 million euros (12.3 billion CZK) from the sale. According to the paper, the storage facilities could be an interesting investment, especially for companies that store natural gas purchased at a lower price, and then resell it when the price increases. He specifically mentioned, for example, the Austrian OMV, the German Wintershall and the Czech ČEZ.
The Minister of Industry and Trade Jozef Síkela (for STAN) has previously stated that the state is dealing with the idea of ownership of storage tanks. According to him, it would be a strategic investment, but the question is to what extent ownership is appropriate. The state, as the owner, could still dispose of the capacity in the storage facility only by leasing it to traders. The state also has other extraordinary tools on how to secure its capacity, the minister said.
Gas storage facilities in the Czech Republic are now about 56 percent full, according to Which Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE), an association of European gas infrastructure operators. Due to Síkel’s extraordinary measure, it must be filled by at least 80 percent before the winter.
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