Eni gas e Luce

Italgas’ DEPA Infrastructure deal to be finalized late March

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The sale of gas company DEPA Infrastructure, acquired by Italgas, Italy’s biggest natural gas distribution company and the third largest in Europe, is expected to be completed in the first quarter of the year, energypress sources closely monitoring the procedure have informed.

Final sale procedures will have been completed towards the end of March, enabling Italgas to make its payment, an amount of 733 million euros, the sources noted.

The competition committee needs to approve the sales and purchase agreement, signed between the buyer and two sellers, privatization fund TAIPED and Hellenic Petroleum ELPE, on December 10, 2021.

RAE, Greece’s Regulatory Authority for Energy, also needs to issue necessary certification for the acquisition, but the competition committee’s approval is a prerequisite for this stage.

The acquisition will be fully completed once Italgas also purchases purchase gas distributor EDA THESS’s 49 percent stake held by Italy’s Eni gas e Luce, wanting to sell. This follow-up purchase of the EDA THESS stake has been set as a condition for Italgas, the winning bidder.

DEPA Infrastructure, EDA THESS’s parent company, holds a 51 percent stake in the gas distributor covering the Thessaloniki and Thessaly areas, while Eni gas e Luce, holds 49 percent.

The overall sum expected to be spent by Italgas for DEPA Infrastructure and EDA THESS’s 49 percent stake is expected to reach 940 million euros.

Then, Copelouzos group subsidiary Faethon is expected to enter DEPA Infrastructure with a stake seen ranging between 10 and 20 percent

Italgas and the Copelouzos group had reached a related agreement on this minority-stake arrangement prior to the DEPA Infrastructure tender.

Copelouzos group enters DEPA Infrastucture alongside Italgas

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The Copelouzos Group is set to acquire a minor stake in Italgas’ 100 percent acquisition of DEPA Infrastructure, to be completed tomorrow when Italgas is expected to sign a final agreement with Greek privatization fund TAIPED.

The Copelouzos Group is expected to acquire a stake of between 10 and 20 percent in DEPA Infrastructure through Faethon, a group company controlled by family member Elmina Copelouzou.

The Copelouzos Group and Italgas had reached an agreement on this partnership while the DEPA Infrastructure tender was still in progress.

The total value of the DEPA Infrastructure acquisition by Italgas is worth 940 million euros, making it one of the biggest deals reached in Greece in recent years.

The 100 percent privatization of DEPA Infrastructure comprises 100 percent of gas distributor EDA Attiki, covering the wider Athens area; 100 percent of gas distributor DEDA, representing all other areas in Greece except for Thessaloniki and Thessaly; as well as a 51 percent stake in gas distributor EDA THESS, covering the Thessaloniki and Thessaly areas.

As its next step, Italgas will also buy the remaining 49 percent of EDA THESS following a decision by Eni Gas e Luce to sell this stake.

Energy privatizations exceed forecasts, raising nearly €3bn

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Two major energy-sector privatizations whose bidding procedures were completed last week, the 100 percent sale of gas company DEPA Infrastructure and 49 percent sale of electricity distribution network operator DEDDIE/HEDNO, exceeded even the most optimistic of expectations, resulting in total revenue, from both sales, of 2.849 billion euros, well over initial projections of 2.2 billion euros.

Australian fund Macquarie’s 2.116 billion-euro winning offer for 49 percent of DEDDIE/HEDNO, being offered without managerial control, stands as a record sum for Greek privatizations.

The DEDDIE/HEDNO sale’s amount will be used by power utility PPC, the parent company, for network modernization, RES growth, and improved customer services.

Italy’s Italgas secured 100 percent of DEPA Infrastructure with an improved follow-up offer of 733 million euros. Thus sum is expected to exceed 800 million euros once the buyer’s bid for a 49 percent stake in distributor EDA THESS, covering the Thessaloniki and Thessaly areas, is submitted and added to the tally.

According to the DEPA Infrastructure sale’s terms, the winning bidder must also purchase EDA THESS’s 49 percent stake, held by Italy’s Eni gas e Luce, wanting to sell.

The favorable outcomes of the two privatizations highlight the country’s improving investment climate as well as the confidence of foreign institutional and strategic investors in the prospects of the Greek economy, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis noted. This improvement is also confirmed by yet another upgrade of the Greek economy, this time by Scope Rating, he added.

Besides signaling good news for the Greek economy, the DEDDIE/HEDNO and DEPA Infrastructure privatizations also send an upbeat message on the prospects of the domestic energy market.

 

Italgas, DEPA Infrastructure’s top bidder, step from acquisition

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Italgas, Italy’s biggest natural gas distribution company and the third largest in Europe, is now one step away from acquiring Greece’s DEPA Infrastructure as, according to energypresss sources, it has submitted the highest bid in the DEPA Infrastructure sale and is the only bidder to which the privatization fund TAIPED has extended a request for an improved offer, by September 8.

The Italgas offer is believed to be close to 700 million euros, a figure expected to rise further, and well above an offer submitted by rival bidder EPH from the Czech Republic.

The preferred bidder may be officially announced on September 9. The sale procedure is expected to be finalized by the end of the year as national and European authorities will need to re-certify DEPA Infrastructure as a natural gas network operator under its new ownership to emerge from the sale.

The 100 percent privatization of DEPA Infrastructure comprises 100 percent of gas distributor EDA Attiki, covering the wider Athens area; 100 percent of gas distributor DEDA, representing all other areas in Greece except for Thessaloniki and Thessaly; as well as a 51 percent stake in gas distributor EDA THESS, covering the Thessaloniki and Thessaly areas.

The preferred bidder will also submit an offer for the remaining 49 percent stake in EDA THESS, based on an agreement reached between TAIPED, the privatization fund, with Italy’s Eni Gas e Luce, the current holder of this minority stake.

As a result, DEPA Infrastructure’s winning bidder stands to become the sole stakeholder in the three gas distribution companies.

DEPA Infrastructure buyer must also buy Eni 49% in EDA Thess

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The winning bidder in a privatization offering gas company DEPA Infrastructure will be obligated to also purchase gas distributor EDA THESS’s 49 percent stake held by Italy’s Eni gas e Luce, wanting to sell, according to an agreement between the two sides, revealed by a European Commission post-bailout surveillance report, the 10th edition, on Greece.

DEPA Infrastructure, EDA THESS’s parent company, holds a 51 percent stake in the gas distributor covering the Thessaloniki and Thessaly areas, while Eni gas e Luce, holding 49 percent, wants to withdraw.

A total of six qualifiers through to the DEPA Infrastructure privatization’s final round have been informed of the condition requiring the eventual DEPA Infrastructure buyer to also purchase Eni gas e Luce’s 49 percent stake in EDA THESS.

Investors have also been informed on, and agreed to, a formula to be applied to evaluate the additional sum that will be required by the DEPA Infrastructure buyer for the 49 percent stake of EDA THESS.

The finalists face a July 15 deadline for binding bids in the DEPA Infrastructure privatization, according to the European Commission report.

Until then, the government has a series of pending issues to resolve, including legislative revisions to unify the asset bases of the DEPA Infrastructure subsidiaries EDA THESS, EDA Attiki, distributing in Athens, and DEDA, covering the rest of Greece.

These legislative revisions will be needed for both the sales of DEPA Infrastructure and Eni gas e Luce’s 49 percent stake in EDA THESS, sources informed.

Legislative revisions to unblock DEPA Infrastructure sale

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The energy ministry is planning to soon submit to Parliament legislative revisions designed to resolve pending issues that have held back the final stage of a privatization concerning gas company DEPA Infrastructure, sources have informed. The ministry will aim for the submission of binding offers by July.

Issues that have held back the sale, offering suitors 100 percent of DEPA Infrastructure, include a pending unification of the asset base of DEPA Infrastructure’s trio of EDA gas distribution subsidiaries and the establishment of a sale procedure for Eni Gas e Luce’s 49 percent stake in EDA THESS.

DEPA Infrastructure, EDA THESS’s parent company, holds a 51 percent stake in the gas distributor covering the Thessaloniki and Thessaly areas, while Italy’s Eni gas e Luce, maintaining the management rights with its 49 percent share in the gas distributor, wants to sell its stake.

Eni gas e Luce’s involvement in distribution has remained secondary to retail energy, the company’s primary focus, on an international scale.

The ministry’s anticipated legislative revisions promise to unify the asset bases of EDA Attiki, distributing to the wider Athens area, EDA THESS (Thessaly and Thessaloniki), as well as DEDA, covering the rest of Greece.

This asset base unification concerning the three distributors will lessen DEDA’s cost burden resulting from its network expansion projects as small distribution surcharge hikes by the two other EDA companies will hasten DEDA’s recovery of investment costs.

EP INVESTMENT ADVISORS; FIRST STATE INVESTMENTS (European Diversified Infrastructure Fund II); ITALGAS SpA; KKR (KKR Global Infrastructure Investors III L.P.); MACQUARIE (MEIF 6 DI HOLDINGS); and a consortium comprising SINO-CEE FUND & SHANGHAI DAZHONG PUBLIC UTILITIES (GROUP) Co., Ltd are the qualifiers through to the final round of the DEPA Infrastructure privatization.