PRAGUE: Italian energy giant Enel plans to sell its 66-percent stake in Slovakia's top power company Slovenske elektrarne (SE) to Prague-based energy group EPH, following a deal confirmed by company officials Tuesday.
"I can confirm we have reached agreement with Enel on all important business and legal aspects," EPH spokesman Daniel Castvaj told AFP.
"The final deal... will hopefully be signed within two weeks," he added.
Czech media have put the value of the deal at 1.3 billion euros ($1.42 billion).
Enel chief executive Francesco Starace told La Stampa daily on Tuesday the company was ready to transfer a 33-percent stake in SE to EPH before Christmas.
"The remaining 33 percent will be transferred when two nuclear plants now under construction are completed and launched -- in two years," he added.
SE is building two units at its Mochovce nuclear power plant in western Slovakia, where it already runs two reactors.
The project has been delayed by several years.
SE also runs two units at Jaslovske Bohunice in western Slovakia, after having closed two Soviet-era reactors in 2006 and 2008 to honour a pledge made before Slovakia's 2004 EU accession.
Nuclear power makes up 55 percent of Slovakia's total power consumption.
Enel said earlier the SE sale was part of a plan to offload non-strategic assets under a broader six-billion-euro debt reduction programme.
Enel, which bought its stake in SE for 839 million euros in 2006, made net profits of 2.089 billion euros on 56 billion in revenue in the first nine months of this year.
SE, which employs more than 4,000 people, made a net profit of 170 million euros in 2014.
The EPH group is comprised of four dozen companies in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany, Italy, Britain and Poland, including the gas transit company Eustream.
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