Reuters: Eurohold Signs Deal to Acquire CEZ's Bulgarian Assets for EUR 335 Million

Bulgarian holding company Eurohold has signed a deal to buy the Bulgarian assets of Czech utility CEZ for 335 million euros ($377.9 million), it said on Thursday. 

Eurohold, active in insurance and asset management, entered exclusive talks in April to acquire CEZ's assets in the Balkan country including a power distributor that provides electricity to more than 3 million Bulgarians.

The company plans to fund the deal with a combination of equity and debt and has already mandated two global investment banks to arrange the funding.

"Eurohold's acquisition of CEZ Group's assets in Bulgaria is expected to be finalized after obtaining regulatory approvals," the company said in a statement.

In April, Bulgaria's financial regulator launched checks into Eurohold's financial situation, pointing out that power distributors are part of European critical infrastructure and directly linked to national security.

Electricity costs are also politically sensitive in the Balkan nation of 7.1 million people, which is one of the poorest in the European Union.

CEZ, which launched arbitration proceedings seeking hundreds of millions of euros from Bulgaria for its failure to protect its energy investments in 2016, said the process would not be affected by the deal and would continue.

The company signed a contract to sell its assets in Bulgaria to local energy company Inercom in 2018, but Bulgaria's anti-monopoly regulator blocked the deal five months later.