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| Libya Looks at Taking Stake in Italy's Enel |
| Roma, 13.05.2009 |
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| Utility Raising Funds to Pay Down Debt; Asset Sales Planned
By STACY MEICHTRY and LIAM MOLONEY
ROME – Libya's sovereign-wealth fund may take a minority stake in Enel SpA as part of the Italian utility's planned capital increase, according to Enel's chief executive and Libya's ambassador to Italy.
In an interview, Enel CEO Fulvio Conti said the Libyan Investment Authority had recently expressed interest in taking a minority stake in the Italian utility.
The fund could either buy shares in the open market or subscribe to an €8 billion ($10.9 billion) capital increase that Enel is planning in order to cut its debt load, Mr. Conti said.
"We would welcome their ideas. It is premature to say how much and if and when they would participate," Mr. Conti said.
Mr. Conti has been making the rounds with investors in recent weeks to drum up support for the capital increase. A week ago, the executive traveled to Libya to make a presentation about Enel to Abdulhafid Zlitni, head of the LIA, said Hafed Gaddur, Libya's ambassador to Italy.
"We are evaluating it. No decision has been made," Mr. Gaddur said in a phone interview.
Oil-rich Libya is becoming a familiar presence in the halls of Italian finance. The Libyan government is now one of UniCredit SpA's biggest investors after recently backing a capital increase that gave Libya a 4.99% stake in the Italian bank.
Tripoli has also recently acquired a stake in the Italian oil company Eni SpA by buying shares on the open market.
Enel's capital increase is one of several measures the company has adopted to cut its €50.8 billion debt burden, which has become a source of concern for investors.
Mr. Conti said the company is forging ahead with its plans to sell as much as 30% of Green Power, Enel's renewable energy business, by the end of the year.
More than a dozen potential investors have expressed interest in a Green Power stake, Mr. Conti said in the interview.
He said the potential interested parties range from private-equity firms to funds specializing in infrastructure investments.
Mr. Conti said he also expects to reach an agreement with OAO Gazprom in the coming weeks that would allow the Russian gas monopoly to buy a 51% stake in SeverEnergia, a company Enel and Eni formed in 2007 by teaming up to purchase some of the assets that Moscow seized after breaking up the oil giant Yukos.
Enel is also seeking to sell a stake of as much as 80% in its Italian natural-gas distribution network by the end of May, Mr. Conti said.
The utility has received an "attractive" binding offer for the network from infrastructure fund F2i SGR, Mr. Conti said.
Enel's efforts to slim down follow a shopping spree that allowed the utility to become Europe's second-largest energy company by installed capacity.
Although the expansion has tested Enel's finances, the moves have also left the utility with strong footholds in markets, such as Russia and Latin America, that are likely to rebound first when the global economy begins to recover.
On Tuesday, Enel said first-quarter net profit doubled to €1.91 billion, compared with a year earlier, thanks in part to its foreign operations.
"First-quarter results are proving our [expansion] strategy was right," Mr. Conti said.
Energy consumption in Europe has begun to level off in recent weeks after months of decline, he added.
"It looks like we have reached a bottom for the European energy-demand drop, but it is still too early to say when there will be a pickup," Mr. Conti said.
Write to Stacy Meichtry at stacy.meichtry@wsj.com and Liam Moloney at liam.moloney@dowjones.com
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