Enel acquires 13.6 per cent of the Romanian subsidiaries E-Distributie Muntenia and Enel Energie Muntenia
Enel S.p.A. (Enel) announces that its wholly-owned subsidiary Enel Investment Holding B.V. (EIH) has today finalised the acquisition from SAPE S.A. (SAPE, the Romanian state-owned holding company that owns state shareholdings) of around 13.6 per cent of the share capital of E-Distributie Muntenia S.A. (EDM) and Enel Energie Muntenia S.A. (EEM) for a total consideration of about 400 million Euro.
2017-04-10 15:11:58
Following the transaction, EIH has increased its interest in EDM and EEM to about 78 per cent of each company's share capital, from the 64.4 per cent held previously.
EIH's acquisition of an additional 13.6 per cent of EDM and EEM's share capital is a consequence of SAPE exercising a put option in November 2012. With the exercise of the put option, SAPE had asked for a price of about 520 million Euro, amount which was contested by EIH. After failing to reach an agreement on the price for the equity interests, in 2014 SAPE began an arbitration proceeding before the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris, in which it lodged a claim for the above price and about 60 million Euro in interest.
In its ruling of February 3rd, 2017, the Arbitral Tribunal set the purchase price for the equity interests involved in the put option at about 400 million Euro, reducing the amount requested by SAPE by more than 100 million Euro and dismissing the request of interest.
For accounting purposes, the price set by the Arbitral Tribunal for about 13.6 per cent of EDM and EEM share capital is lower than the 448 million Euro recognised so far in respect of those two participations in the Enel Group's consolidated financial statements. In addition, as the transaction involves a business combination in respect of an acquisition carried out in 2008, the purchase has no impact on the consolidated income statement, while it increases consolidated net financial debt by the above mentioned 400 million Euro amount.
The above transaction is consistent with the drivers of the 2017-2019 Strategic Plan represented by the active management of the Enel portfolio, which provides for the use of around 2 billion Euro for the acquisition of minority shareholdings (in addition to a possible share buy-back). The price set by the Arbitral Tribunal for about 13.6 per cent of EDM and EEM share capital is also consistent with the projections set out in the 2017-2019 Strategic Plan for the evolution of consolidated net financial debt.