Albanian Govt Approves in Principle Czech CEZ as Buyer of Power Distributor OSSH

“Negotiations on the contract will continue. We expect it to be signed soon,” government spokesman Grig Rroji told SeeNews.

CEZ remained the sole bidder in the tender for the majority stake in OSSH after the tender commission disqualified the offer of the other candidate, Italy's Enel.

The Czech company has pledged to invest 425 million euro in OSSH, including the 120 million euro it has offered to pay for the stake, and to pay OSSH's outstanding debt of 15.6 billion leks ($159 million/124 million euro).

In June, Albania’s Energy Ministry admitted CEZ, Enel and Austria's EVN and Energy Steiermark to the tender but the latter two did not place bids.

(1 euro = 125.1467 Albanian leks)