Macquarie launches sale of Czech firm GasNet -report
PRAGUE, June 12 (Reuters) - GasNet, the Czech Republic's largest gas distributor, has been put up for sale by Macquarie Asset Management, newspaper Hospodarske Noviny reported on Monday, citing four unnamed sources.
GasNet, with 2.3 million customers, earned a net profit of 1.89 billion crowns ($86 million) in 2022 on revenue of 14.39 billion crowns.
|
Advertisement: The National Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago Limited (NGC) NGC’s HSSE strategy is reflective and supportive of the organisational vision to become a leader in the global energy business. |
The distributor could be worth high tens of billions of crowns, the newspaper reported.
Macquarie, leading a group of investors that includes British Columbia Investment Management and Allianz Capital Partners, bought into GasNet in 2013. In 2019, it acquired a 50.04% stake for 1.8 billion euros ($1.93 billion) from RWE.
The investment firms declined to comment for the newspaper.
Macquarie also declined to comment on the report when contacted by Reuters.
GasNet covers 80% of the country but not Prague or one southern region.
Acquisition experts told the newspaper that infrastructure funds are likely to bid for GasNet given it is a regulated sector. Czech investors, including billionaire Daniel Kretinsky, could also show interest.
($1 = 22.0640 Czech crowns)
($1 = 0.9305 euros) (Reporting by Jason Hovet; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)