Vattenfall;vendita dei gioielli di famiglia (9700 Km di rete di trasmissione nel nord della Germania)per ripianare i debiti.
Sembra che a causa della crisi i compratori ora si tirino indietro perchè non hanno i soldi promessi al tempo dell'offerta.
Morgan stanley,Siemens e il fondo KKR sono tra quelli che si sono trovati a corto di cash e si sono ritirati.
Altri offerenti stanno cercando di rinegoziare al ribasso.
Vattenfall May Struggle to Attract Offers for German Power Grid
By Aaron Kirchfeld, Nicholas Comfort and Ambereen Choudhury
April 23 (Bloomberg) --
Vattenfall AB may get less than the 1 billion euros ($1.3 billion) it sought for its German power grid as bidders drop out, people close to the talks said.
The Nordic region’s biggest utility put its 9,700 kilometers (6,024 miles) of
power lines in Germany on sale last year. A regulator’s delay in setting what fees operators can charge this year has forced Vattenfall to postpone the deadline for bids from the first quarter, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The credit crisis has also left bidders struggling to finance their offers, the people said.
Morgan Stanley’s infrastructure unit, and a team including
Siemens AG and private equity firm KKR & Co. are among bidders that have withdrawn, the people said. Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and a group including Deutsche Bank AG’s RREEF fund, Goldman Sachs Group Inc., and
Allianz SE may re-submit offers by the first week of May, the people said. The bids may be for as little as 500 million euros, one of the people said.
Stockholm-based Vattenfall is sticking to its plan to sell the grid in the first half, said spokesman
Andreas Breitsprecher, who declined to provide further details. Officials at Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, Siemens and KKR declined to comment. Allianz and Goldman Sachs couldn’t be immediately reached for comment.
Vattenfall is selling its transmission network in Germany to sidestep tighter regulation and cut debt it amassed when it bought
Nuon NV of the Netherlands’s production and supply unit.
Germany’s power regulator, the Federal Network Agency helps set the fees electricity grid operators charge by assessing a reasonable level of spending on the infrastructure.
The agency slashed the amount grid operators could charge last year by reducing the investment figures Vattenfall and its German peers could use to calculate fees. In July, the regulator said it would in 2009 raise the rate of return on investments it allows operators, paving the way for an increase in fees. Vattenfall was allowed a 14 percent increase in costs this year, the utility said in March.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Nicholas Comfort in Frankfurt at
[email protected];
Ambereen Choudhury in London at
[email protected];
Aaron Kirchfeld97 in Frankfurt at
[email protected]