Romanian Property Resitution Fund Sells 15% Stake in CEZ Servicii to Czech CEZ for 1.6 Mln Euro

The selling price is around eight times higher that the investment cost and double compared to the market value as evaluated by an independent evaluator at end-2008, Proprietatea said in a statement.

Last month the fund sold to CEZ the 30% stakes it held in each of CEZ Distributie and CEZ Vanzare for a combined 229.6 million euro.

Proprietatea also said it revised its net profit projection for this year to some 690 million lei ($240 million/161 million euro), from the initial figure of 212.4 million lei, following the sale of the three stakes to CEZ. The fund has reported a net profit of 655 million lei for the first nine months of this year. Comparative figures were not available.

CEZ (www.cez.ro) is now the sole owner of CEZ Distributie and CEZ Vanzare. It also holds a majority stake in another Romanian unit - CEZ Trade.

In October 2005, CEZ bought a 24.6% stake in Romanian power distributor Electrica Oltenia from the government, renamed to CEZ Romania (www.cez.ro) and raised its stake in the company to 51% via a capital increase.

The Proprietatea fund, set up in 2005, was designed to compensate pre-communist owners whose property can not be restored in its original form. It held stakes in 88 companies from the banking, energy, telecommunications, utility and other industries at the end of last year.

(1 euro = 4.2909 Romanian lei)