Slovakian PM Blocks SPP Sale

Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico has said he will not give approval to GDF Suez and E.ON Ruhrgas to sell a 49 per cent stake in gas transmission operator SPP unless it can guarantee that prices will not rise.

GDF Suez and E.ON Ruhrgas had entered into negotiations with Czech energy company Energeticky a Prumyslovy Holding (EPH) for the sale of the two companies' joint 49 per cent stake in the Slovakian gas pipeline operator. However, Prime Minister Fico had previously warned the company that the Slovakian government, which holds the remaining 51 per cent stake in SPP, would block the sale if E.ON and GDF did not guarantee that they would not raise prices.

E.ON Ruhrgas and GDF Suez had earlier said that they would raise natural gas prices in Slovakia by between 18.5 to 25.4 per cent next year, a proposal which Minister Fico said would cause the government to block the SPP sale. The government would only approve the sale if it got written confirmation that the price rise would not take effect, he warned.

On Wednesday, the Prime Minister carried through on the warning that it would block the sale.

"For the Slovak public and for inflation, it would be very proper for there to be no increase in gas prices," Reuters reports him as saying.

"The share transfer will not be approved by the government until the German and French shareholders say: from January 1, 2013 the growth in gas prices for households is 0.000. Our condition is clear."