Four listed Polish utilities, PGE, Tauron, Enea, and Energa, received non-binding offers from the Ministry of State Assets regarding the planned spinoff of their coal-fired generation assets to a new state-owned vehicle, the utilities said in concurrent market filings on July 17.

The new entity to manage the coal assets, the National Energy Security Agency (NABE), will secure the operation and maintenance of the installations and gradually retire them.

Demand for coal as a source of energy is expected to diminish in line with Poland’s plan to bring a greater number of cleaner projects online.

The ministry offered PGE to sell its entire stake in coal PGE GiEK for PLN849mn (€191.2mn). 

The offer also entails that the entity’s PLN5.4bn, which it owes to the mother company, will be repaid over an eight-year period following the conclusion of the transaction, with 70% of the repayment guaranteed by the state.

Tauron received a symbolic offer of PLN1 for its coal-fired assets within unit Tauron Wytwarzanie. 

The state also committed to repay the unit's debt owed to Tauron, which was valued at PLN6.33bn at the end of the third quarter of 2022. 

A portion of the remaining debt, PLN2.12bn, will be repaid along the same conditions as offered to PGE.
 
Enea, the state proposed a sale price of PLN2.48bn for its generation unit Enea Wytwarzanie and PLN632mn separately for one of the company’s power plants.

The PLN2.38bn debt of Enea's units to the parent company will be repaid in the same manner as in the case of other companies.

Energa, which is owned by energy concern Orlen, was offered PLN153mn for 89.64% of unit Energa Elektrownie Ostroleka. The unit holds no debt towards its parent.

The state’s offer to the utilities made investors run for their stocks on July 17. PGE’s shares jumped nearly 15% at the end of the day’s trading on the Warsaw Stock Exchange.

Tauron’s stocks rose just over 22% while Enea’s gained over 30%. Orlen-owned Energa gained nearly 3%. 

Poland expects to bring down the share of energy produced from burning coal and lignite from 70% currently to 11%-28% in 2040. That will be possible thanks to massive investments in offshore wind in the late 2020s and in nuclear power in the 2030s, the government hopes.