Italy’s Enel negotiates with Greece’s PPC to sell its assets in Romania

Italian energy giant Enel has announced that it has entered into exclusive negotiations with Greek state-owned energy provider PPC on “the potential sale of all its assets in
Romania”.

During the exclusivity period, until the end of January 2023, PPC will conduct due diligence on these assets, the Italian group said in a statement.

Following this audit, the PPC Board of Directors will decide whether or not to submit a “binding offer” to Enel to take over its assets in Romania.

Enel, 23.6% of which is controlled by the Italian state, announced in November that it was planning to sell off assets worth 21 billion euros as part of its 2023-2025 strategic plan, in order to reduce its debt and focus on six key markets.

This “rationalization strategy”, the bulk of which will be carried out next year, should reduce the group’s debt to between 51 and 52 billion euros by the end of 2023, compared with 58 to 62 billion this year.

In Europe, Enel intends to focus on Italy and Spain and to sell its assets in Romania.

Its other key countries are the United States, Brazil, Chile and Colombia. In Latin America, Enel plans to withdraw from Peru and Argentina.

Thanks to its new strategy, the Italian group is targeting a net profit excluding exceptional items of between 7 and 7.2 billion euros in 2025, with an average annual growth rate of 10-13%, compared with 5 to 5.3 billion euros in 2022.