CEZ has acquired a distribution company in Romania

Martin Roman, Chairman of the Board and CEO of CEZ, and Radomir Lasak, Vice-chairman of the board and Director of the Administration division, and representatives of a Romanian state company Electrica have signed an agreement about a sale of a share in the Electrica Oltenia company in Bucharest today. "The purchase of Oltenia is another logical step in the South-Eastern Europe territory leading to the fulfilment of our strategic plan to become the leader of Central and East-European electricity market, especially, when the area of Oltenia´s activity directly concurs with our three Bulgarian distribution firms, which we bough within privatization last year," said at signing Martin Roman, Chairman of the Board and CEO of CEZ.

Oltenia is the largest of the eight Romanian distribution companies with a 19 % share of the Romanian electricity market and with approximately 1.36 million customers. The total yearly amount of electricity supplied by this company represents ca 6.8 TWh. The number of end customers of the CEZ Group already reached 6.6 million by the Romanian acquisition. The CEZ Group has thereby moved from the ninth to the eighth place among European power companies, based on the number of customers.

The agreed purchase price of the transaction for the offered 51 % share amounts to 151 million EUR, out of which 47.4 million EUR is a payment for 24.62 % direct share in the company´s capital, the remaining 103.6 million EUR represent an agreed increase in CEZ´s share in the company to majority 51 %.

Ladislav Kriz, Press Officer, CEZ, a. s.

5. 4. 2005