The listing of Nuclearelectrica, scheduled to take place at the end of Q1 2013

• Deadline much too optimistic, market sources say

This year is very important for Nuclearelectrica SA because the Government wants to take the company public at the end of Q1 2013.

The management of Nuclearelectrica said: "The contract is currently under negotiation with the syndicate selected for intermediating the IPO of new shares, which will be issued by the company, based on the Government decision no. 39/2012 for the approval of the strategy for the privatization of Nuclearelectrica. According to the commitments made by Romania as part of the Letter of Intent to the IMF of September 12th, 2012, the privatization of the company through the sale of 10% of the share capital of Nuclearelectrica SA (following a share capital increase) is expected to be completed at the end of Q1 2013".

Energy market sources claim that, most likely, Q1 2013 is a far too optimistic deadline for the IPO of Nuclearelectrica, because the Ministry of the Economy has only succeeded in selecting the intermediary for the IPO of Nuclearelectrica at the end of last year. Last summer, the ministry revised the tender book, in order to attract more bidders.

Muşat & Asociaţii has been selected by the Ministry of the Economy to provide legal services for the intermediation of the listing of Nuclearelectrica. The intermediary selected by the authorities is the consortium comprising SSIF Swisscapital (syndicate leader) and BT Securities.

The listings of the energy companies have been repeatedly postponed since 2008. As a result, the commitments to the IMF have also been amended. Aside from Nuclearelectrica, the government has also made the commitment to privatize through the stock market companies such as Romgaz, Hidroelectrica or the Oltenia Energy complex. Also awaited is the secondary public offer of Transgaz, which involves the sale on the Bucharest Stock Exchange of a 15% stake in the national gas carrier.

• Turnover of 1.65 billion lei, a profit of 6.7 million lei

For 2012, the management of Nuclearelectrica estimates the reaching of the turnover and profit for 2012, stipulated in the rectified revenue and expense budget: "For 2012 we forecast a produced and delivered volume of energy of 10,547,000 MWh, which amounts to a turnover of 1.645 billion lei. Any consideration on the turnover and profit (ed. note: gross profit of 6.7 million lei) seen by Nuclearelectrica must take into account the fact that the company sells about 72% of its output through regulated contracts, at the price set by the ANRE and that any cost cutting should not affect the nuclear security of the Cernavodă plant".

In 2012, revenues from the sale of electricity have exceeded by about 0.8% the amounts considered when drawing up last year's budget, and the volume of energy produced and delivered is about 1.5% bigger than the annual schedule set at the beginning of 2012.

Last year, Nuclearelectrica was only paid 121 lei /MWh for the energy sold on the regulated market, even though its costs had reached nearly 140 lei/MWh. For this year, the ANRE (the regulator of the energy market) has granted a bigger tariff to Nuclearelectrica (142 lei/MWh).

The representatives of Nuclearelectrica have also said that, on the other hand, the financial expenses have seen a rising trend throughout the entire year 2012, due to the upward fluctuations of the exchange rate, which has affected the company's earnings.

Nuclearelectrica still has two ongoing contracts negotiated directly for the sale of electricity. The contracts are concluded with the final electricity consumers, and the representatives of the company claim that they are not allowed to disclose the identity of the customers, the delivery price and the volume of energy delivered.

• Investments of 70 million Euros

The total value of the investment program conducted by Nuclearelectrica in 2012 is about 70 million Euros, financed using its own resources.

The strategy of Nuclearelectrica SA stipulates a continuous increae in the efficiency of the company, through multi-annual programs, intended to ensure, first and foremost a rigorous cut of the production costs, the optimization of the exploitation costs, by two units, the compliance of the durations planned for exploitation and a preventive management of the acquisitions of energy from the open market, to cover the unexpected downtimes in the functioning of the units.

The management of Nuclearelectrica estimates: "The new law of energy did not have a major impact on the company. Up until the issue of this law, the company has continued to follow the principles which it wants to implement - transparency, indiscriminate access to energy, etc. The idea of the liberalization of the energy market is good, but the deadlines set by the law only refer to the liberalization of the transactions with the end-consumers, whereas the decision on the deregulation of the sale of energy to producers still lies with the regulators. Also, the law no longer allows secured contracts between producers, to allow the management of certain risks (in the case of Nuclearelectrica, we are talking about the unplanned shutdowns of the Cernavodă units). The introduction of mechanisms to encourage investments would be beneficial".

Nuclearelectrica heavily uses the OPCOM managed markets and praises the trading possibilities which our energy market provides. The company awaits with interest the completion of the intraday market and the introduction of specific financial transactions.