Romania Looks To Own Majority Stake In Nuke JV – FinMin

“We have EUR2 billion proceeds from past privatizations and Romania has already built two nuclear reactors on its own,” Vosganian said during a seminar on energy issues.

He added a draft government decision will be drawn up in two weeks to set a majority stake for power station operator Nuclearelectrica in charge with the joint venture. A recent proposal indicated Nuclearelectrica was to hold a 20% stake in the venture.

Six other investors, namely ArcelorMittal’s (MT) Romanian unit, CEZ AS (BAACEZ.PR) of the Czech Republic, Belgium’s Electrabel, Italy’s Enel SpA (ENEL.MI), Spain’s Iberdola SA (IBDRY) and Germany’s RWE AG (RWE.XE), will hold the remainder in the joint venture.

However, following recent talks with Nuclearelectrica, the investors have indicated each would hold between 10% and 20% of the shares of the new venture.

The minister said the decision to raise Nuclearelectrica’s stake was based on a social survey indicating Romanians would prefer the state to be at the helm of this investment.

Romania is looking for investors to set up a joint venture with Nuclearelectrica in order to build nuclear reactors three and four at the country’s sole nuclear power station Cernavoda. The venture is expected to be registered in May.

The power plant in Cernavoda operated by Nuclearelectrica already has two reactors and provides around 18% of Romania’s generation needs. The plant was initially designed to have five reactors, each with 700 megawatts.