Enel SpA (“Enel”), through its wholly-owned subsidiary Enel Investment Holding BV, finalized the sale of its 40% stake in Artic Russia BV, which in turn owns 49% of the share capital of SeverEnergia (the aggregated interest of Enel in the latter being equal to 19.6%), to Itera, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Russian oil & gas company Rosneft.
The parties announced the transaction in Sochi on September 24th where the agreement was signed by Fulvio Conti, CEO and General Manager of Enel, and Igor Sechin, President and Chairman of the Management Board of Rosneft.
At closing, Enel Investment Holding received a cash consideration of 1.8 billion USD from Itera.
The transaction, which has been completed upon satisfaction of the conditions precedent, is part of the disposal plan announced by Enel to the market on March 13th and enables the Enel Group to reduce its consolidated net financial debt for an amount of 1.8 billion USD.
Enel in Russia
Enel entered the Russian market in 2004 as the first private operator in the power sector. In the upstream segment, Enel owned a 19.6% stake in the SeverEnergia consortium with Novatek, GazpromNeft and Eni.
Enel also owns a 56.43% stake in Enel OGK-5, a generation company with four power plants with an installed capacity of 9,007 MW, located in the fastest growing areas of the country, including two newly built combined cycle plants for a total capacity of 820 MW.
In the sales segment, Enel owns 49.5% of RusEnergoSbyt, an important electricity trader in Russia, with sales of 52 TWh posted in 2012.
