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PRAGUE — The Czech government is in talks with most of the state-owned company CEZ about restructuring the utility, CEZ and the finance ministry said on Wednesday after a previous government dropped ideas to split the company after an earlier round of talks sail.

According to Seznam Zpravy’s website, which initially reported on the discussions, the ruling coalition had been holding talks on the issue for several weeks as part of efforts to give the state more control over energy prices as energy bills rise.

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CEZ shares rose about 3% on Wednesday to outpace the rest of Prague and are up more than 70% in the past year.

CEZ said the talks were at an early stage and prompted by a range of issues affecting power supplies, including the war in Ukraine, the shift to renewables and efforts to provide long-term reliable and affordable power for customers. guarantee.

“All of this again leads us to think about an optimal internal structure in the future,” said a CEZ spokesperson, adding that the discussions were still in the stage of discussing ideas, “so nothing is possible to to present.”

In 2018, a previous government discussed splitting CEZ into separate groups for old energy assets such as coal and nuclear power plants and new assets such as renewables. The aim at the time was to make it easier to finance new nuclear power plants.

“A restructuring of CEZ is one of the options we are considering,” Finance Minister Zbynek Stanjura said, according to Seznam Zpravy.

The Treasury Department, which controls the state’s 70% stake in CEZ, reiterated Stanjura’s comments at Reuters’ request. It said the option was being analyzed but the ministry declined to comment further. (Reporting by Jason Hovet; editing by Edmund Blair)

This post Czech government discusses CEZ restructuring option

was original published at “https://financialpost.com/pmn/business-pmn/czech-government-discussing-cez-restructuring-option”