BRATISLAVA, March 7, (WEBNOVINY) — President Ivan Gasparovic is convinced that the legal unbundling of the company Eustream, a.s. from its parent company Slovensky Plynarensky Priemysel (SPP), a.s. should be prevented. The president asked Prime Minister Iveta Radicova to halt the transaction at all costs at their Wednesday meeting. An extraordinary general meeting is to take place on Thursday of SPP, where according to the president, a transfer of gas utility’s assets in the volume of EUR 1.8 billion to the operator of the natural gas transit infrastructure operator, Eustream, is to be decided on. “Should the transfer of assets be carried out, the Slovak Republic would lose control over assets of the transmission network operator, which would thus be fully controlled by the foreign shareholder,“ alleged president’s spokesman Marek Trubac.
Economy Minister Juraj Miskov assured that no legally convened general meeting of SPP or any other body that would approve any changes in SPP’s assets before the new government takes over after elections. “SPP’s general assembly that foreign shareholders scheduled on Thursday, March 8, will not be quorate and hence will not adopt any decisions,” specified Miskov.
The Economy Ministry informed on Monday that foreign investors of SPP convened an extraordinary general meeting despite their disapproval presented in a letter from February. In the letter, the Economy Ministry opposed the EGM, which however, the company’s management did not acknowledge. Considering the dysfunctional National Property Fund, which issues authorizations for participation at the general meeting, the state will not be able to participate in the general meeting as a shareholder, which will automatically cause that the meeting will not be quorate.
Slovensky Plynarensky Priemysel is a supranational gas company. Its shareholders are the Slovak Republic represented by the National Property Fund (51 percent) and the consortium Slovak Gas Holding comprising E.ON Ruhrgas and GDF Suez (49 percent). The company Eustream operates a transmission network with annual capacity of over 90 billion cubic meters. It commenced its activities on July 1, 2006 as a 100-percent affiliation of gas utility SPP after shipment services were unbundled.
SITA