Romania's antitrust body probes takeover of Lukoil’s Land Power by PPC

BUCHAREST (Romania), September 27 (SeeNews) - Romania’s antitrust authority said that it is looking into the acquisition of Land Power, a unit of Russian group Lukoil, which operates an 84 MW wind farm in southeastern Romania, by PPC Renewables, a division of Greek utility Public Power Corporation (PPC) Group.

The takeover is being conducted through PPC Renewable’s special purpose vehicle Spark Wind Park, the antitrust authority said in a press release on Tuesday.

The deal, whose value has not been disclosed, will be analysed by the Competition Council to determine whether it is compatible with a normal competition environment.

PPC has signed an agreement with European subsidiaries of Lukoil Group to acquire a 100% stake in Land Power, it said in a filing with the Athens Stock Exchange in July. Located in Tulcea county, in a region with the best wind conditions in Romania, the wind farm generates more than 200 GWh of electricity per year.

PPC is also in the process of finalising its acquisition of Italian energy group Enel’s assets in Romania for 1.26 billion euro ($1.33 billion), after the European Commission cleared the takeover in June 2023. The deal also includes Enel’s local portfolio of green energy generation projects with a cumulative planned capacity of 5.4 GW.

($=0.9471 euro)