Eni Divests from Hungarian Gas Sector
Eni said December 18 it has signed an agreement to sell 98.99% of Tigaz to MET Holding, a Swiss trader with close links to Hungary.
The sale includes Eni’s gas distribution operations in Hungary through its participations in Tigaz and Turulgaz. Tigaz owns and operates a 33,700 km-long network in northeast Hungary, created in 2007, representing 48% of the country’s national gas network and distributing 2bn m3/yr to about 1.2mn delivery points in a regulated market environment. Both sides said the sale was agreed following a competitive tender but still requires regulatory approval. No transaction value was disclosed by either party.
Zug, Switzerland based trading firm MET Holding is 40% owned by Hungarian oil and gas group Mol; the other 60% is held by four private investors, the largest stake (24%) belonging to MET's CEO Benjamin Lakatos who is a former Mol employee. MET says it “has a significant end-consumer presence in Croatia, Hungary, Italy, Romania, and Slovakia.”
Lakatos said: “Tigaz adds a new element to MET’s asset portfolio as part of its growth strategy; advancing in the value chain to natural gas infrastructure investments is a natural next step for us.”
Through this deal, Eni said it has completed its exit from the gas sector in Hungary in line with its disposals and asset rationalisation plan. The exit process started in 2016, roughly a decade after it entered, with the disposal of Eni’s gas marketing activities in Hungary in both free and regulated markets, acquired by RWE through its local subsidiary Elmu-Emasz. The latter, an electricity marketer, entered Hungary’s gas market 2015.
RWE on December 14 announced its divestment of a majority 50.92% interest in Hungarian lignite-fired power generator Matra. Western European investors have been pulling out of Hungary's energy sector as government interventions such as taxes and tariffs have affected their business models. Eni was in the first wave of investors, bidding for and winning gas distribution grids in the country in the mid-1990s.