By Jessica Hodgson, Sean Carney, Eyk Henning and Marietta
Cauchi
LONDON--Companies and funds interested in bidding for net4gas,
the Czech long-distance gas transmission business owned by
Germany's RWE AG (RWE.XE), are jockeying to assemble their final
bid line-ups as advisers set a late-November final deadline, people
familiar with the matter said.
Many of the companies who submitted initial offers for net4gas
remain interested, these people say, although the configuration of
some of the bid consortia have changed and remains fluid. Czech
privately held financial and industrial group KKCG and investment
firm Energeticky a Prumyslovy Holding are expected to submit final
bids, people said.
RWE declined to comment.
Global Infrastructure Partners, the infrastructure investment
firm, is also still involved in the process, people said, though it
is no longer bidding in a consortium with EPH. Belgian gas
transmission company Fluxys SA (FLUX.BT) is no longer looking at
the asset, people said. Allianz SE (ALV.XE), the German insurer, is
still bidding with Borealis Infrastructure Management Inc., the
infrastructure investment arm of Canadian pension fund Ontario
Municipal Employees Retirement System, people said.
It is unclear whether funds controlled by Australian banking
giant Macquarie Group Ltd., (MQG.AU) and another Australian fund,
IFM Investments Ltd., are still bidding, after initially expressing
interest.
Net4Gas is one of a clutch of assets being sold by RWE,
Germany's largest utility, as the firm struggles with slumping
energy consumption across Europe and seeks to reposition itself in
the wake of Germany's decision to pull out of the nuclear
market.
RWE in May reported a drop in first-quarter earnings, saying the
renewed economic downturn is depressing energy consumption across
Europe. It has responded by cutting costs, selling assets and
trimming investment. RWE intends to sell assets worth 7 billion
euros ($8.6 billion) by the end of next year and cut costs by EUR1
billion through 2014, which could include job cuts.
Initial indications were that bids were expected to be around
EUR1.4 billion.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) is managing the sale.
-Write to jessica.hodgson@dowjones.com
(Marynia Kruk in Warsaw and Jan Hromadko in Frankfurt
contributed to this article.)
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