ENEL-FRANCE TELECOM/NEW WIND
PRESS RELEASE
PRESS RELEASE
The conditions imposed by the Competition Authority on the Enel-Infostrada acquisition
At its meeting on 28 February 2001 the Competition Authority resolved to close the investigation begun on 25 January 2001 into the acquisition of Infostrada by Enel and France Telecom. The proceedings were opened in response to the decision of the European Commission to refer the case back to the Italian Competition Authority, for examination in relation to the electricity market.
The acquisition has now been authorized, subject to certain specific conditions which are deemed to be absolutely necessary to ensure that it does not restrict competition on the Italian market for the supply of electric power to actual and potential "eligible" customers.
More specifically, the Authority requires the Enel Group to adopt the following measures:
1) ENEL S.p.A. must shed at least 5,500 MW of its generating capacity;
2 within 120 days of the date of the resolution, ENEL S.p.A. is required to submit to the Authority a list of the generating plant for disposal, which must account for not less than 60% of modulation and peak capacity, for approval by the Authority within the following 120 days, after it has sought the opinion of the Electricity and Gas Regulatory Authority;
3) within 180 days thereafter, ENEL S.p.A. must transfer the generating plant referred to under 2) above to another company, and sell this latter company to a buyer which has no type of linkage, directly or indirectly, with ENEL S.p.A.;
4) the assignment of the company referred to in 3) above must be effected by ENEL S.p.A. using procedures which are both transparent and competitive;
5) the procedures for the disposal of the company referred to in 3) above must be completed within 90 days of the date of the assignment of not less than 15,000 MW, pursuant to section 8(1) of Legislative Decree 79/1999;
6) ENEL S.p.A. must promptly submit reports to the Competition Authority on all the formalities undertaken in order to perform the measures referred to in points 3), 4) and 5) above.
Rome, 28 February 2001