Verbund and Energie Allianz to form an Austrian electricity solution
Ad-hoc-announcement transmitted by DGAP.
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
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The concept of an Austrian electricity solution, agreed between the partners,
which has been negotiated since February 2002, comprises the value adding levels
production, trading and sales of electricity. The core of the solution is a
joint trading company under the corporate management of Verbund. The utilities
concerned supply their entire producion volumes exclusively to the trading
company and will receive in return a market price that is linked to quotes at
the European electricity exchanges. The joint trading company handles approx.
100 TWh of electricity including volumes which are bought from European
electricity markets and supplies exclusively the distribution channels of the
partners at market prices. The wholesale business in Austria and abroad as well
as the trading business continue to be carried out by the joint trading company
under the corporate management of Verbund. The business customers with a demand
of more than 4 GWh per year will be supplied by a joint business customers sales
company to be established, which will be under the corporate management of
Energie Allianz. To secure competition in the household customer market, the
sales channels of the partners remain independent. As a compensation for the
long term guarantee of electricity from hydro power for the Austrian household
customers, Verbund gets a 1.1 EUR/MWh premium. Subject to the approval of the
partner companies’ supervisory boards and shareholders meetings and the approval
of the antitrust commission, the planned electricity solution should be
negotiated in detail by the end of June 2002. The Austrian electricity solution
brings Verbund a lot of quantitative advantages. First analyses about the
synergy potential have shown that Verbund even in a short term view can gain a
lot of synergies. In addition to cost synergies resulting from merging the
trading and business customers sales organisations as well as synergies
resulting from the joint control of the power plants, there are some market
synergies, like the premium for the hydro power electricity from hydropower.
Due to the Austrian electricity solution, the planned hydro power merger between
Verbund AHP and the German utility E.ON, the formation of the European Hydro
Power, is no longer possible. Verbund and E.ON, however, are trying to find
alternative ways of cooperation based on their long-term good relationship.
end of ad-hoc-announcement (c)DGAP 29.04.2002
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WKN: 074640; ISIN: AT0000746409; Index: ATX
Listed: Amtlicher Handel in Wien; Amtlicher Handel in Frankfurt;
Freiverkehr in Berlin, Hamburg und Stuttgart
291039 Apr 02