EnBW submits declaration of interest for the participation in the bidding process following the privatisation of ESM in Macedonia

Karlsruhe. Today, 20th December 2005, EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG declared before the national energy supplier of Macedonia with headquarters in Skopje its interest to acquire the majority of Elektrostopanstvo na Makedonija (AD ESM). The approval to privatise 90% of ESM’s shares was published by the Macedonian Ministry for Economy and Trade on 9th December 2005.

“EnBW sees a participation in Macedonia as an important milestone in its growth strategy in Emerging Europe”, says Dr. Amir Ghoreishi, chief representative of EnBW for corporate strategy and M&A. “The electricity market of south east Europe will be highly vibrant in the coming years, and AD ESM can play a principal role in this strategically important geographic region with more than 700,000 customers.”

“Based on its national and European positioning and especially, its experiences in Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary, EnBW considers itself the ideal partner for AD ESM. The expansion of EnBW’s investments in this region is strategically geared towards establishing the company as a “partner of these growth regions“ as well as to develop the dynamic growth potentials through investments in the main business fields of EnBW.

With more than 5 million energy customers, EnBW is the third largest energy supplier in Germany. In the fiscal year 2004, EnBW earned 9.8 billion euros and sold about 100 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity and 83 billion kilowatt-hours of natural gas. In the previous fiscal year, EnBW recorded the strongest growth in earnings in the history of the company, with an increase of earnings by 1.4 billion before revision for taxes and interests. EnBW currently has about 18,000 employees.