ANRE President Dumitru Chirice said on Tuesday that the authority had not received a formal notification, as required by law, from the Enel group of its intention to sell part of its assets in Romania or withdraw from the local market, but that if withdrawn, the supply of energy and gas to consumers would not will be interrupted.

• “Given the information spread in the public space today, November 22, 2022, according to which the Italian energy group Enel announced its intention to leave Romania during 2023, accordingly, it announced a possible intention to sell some assets belonging to the ENEL group. I clearly explain that such a situation does not imply the exit of Enel Romania from the energy market, but can only mean a change in the ownership of assets/change in share capital, etc.
• In addition, I would like to note that NARE has not officially received any notification on this matter from this licensed business entity, as required by law. (..)
• However, I would like to emphasize the fact that in the event that any entity operating in the electricity/natural gas supply sector exits the Romanian market, the end consumers of electricity/natural gas will have a continuous, uninterrupted supply of electricity/natural gas gas, depending on the circumstances.”, the president of ANRE reacted on Tuesday.

He recalled that from the point of view of ensuring the supply of electricity/natural gas to end users and from the point of view of observing their rights, NARE approved two normative acts that guarantee uninterrupted access to two public utilities, namely the Regulation on the supply of energy in the latter case, electric, approved by order of the President of ANRE no. 91/2022, respectively, the Regulation on the supply of natural gas in the last case, approved by the order of the President of ANRE no. 173/2020.

Enel Group has announced that it wants to leave Romania in 2023

According to a report presented to the press on the occasion of the Capital Markets Day conference, Enel Group planned to exit Romania next year, Agerpres reports.

Enel said it plans to sell 21 billion euros ($21.51 billion) worth of assets to reduce its net debt and focus on its presence in six countries, under an updated strategy by Italy’s biggest utilities unveiled on Tuesday.

The majority of the asset sale plan, which targets assets in Romania and Peru in particular, will be completed by the end of 2023, the company said in a statement.

Enel, which may also sell its gas portfolio in Spain, wants to end 2023 with net debt of 51-52 billion euros, up from 69 billion euros at the end of September.

Earnings before taxes, interest, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) should rise to 22.8-22.9 billion euros in 2025 from the level of 19-19.6 billion euros estimated in 2022.