Italy's Enel has finalised the sale of its Belgian subsidiary Marcinelle Energie to French electricity supplier Direct Energie for Eur36.5 million.
Marcinelle Energie owns and operates the 400 MW Marcinelle CCGT power plant in Belgium.
The plant, located in Charleroi, Wallonia Region, was completed in 2012. In 2015, it generated some 1.2 TWh of electricity, Enel said.
As a result of the sale, which follows the agreement signed on September 28th, Enel steps out of the Belgian market, the company said at the end of December.
Gas to Power Journal reported earlier in October that Direct Energie was aiming to double its overall generation capacity to 800 MW through the purchase of the Marcinelle power plant, thus confirming its “ambitions in the Belgian market.”
Gazprom three years ago also had shown interest in the purchase but it ultimately did not follow through with the deal.
Enel's disposal programme reaches Eur4.1 billion
The transaction is part of the Eur8 billion disposal programme of non-core assets envisaged by Enel's active portfolio management plan.
“This strategy will allow the Group to reallocate resources to drive growth in key areas such as networks and renewables” Enel said in a statement.
To date, the Enel Group has finalised agreements for the sale of assets with a value of about 4.1 billion euros.
The disposal programme was “ahead of the scheduled target to achieve 6 billion euros of capital recycling by 2019” Enel had said earlier in November, adding disposals will mainly be related to thermal generation assets, renewable assets and “minor assets in Latin America.”
Meanwhile, it said it was aiming to increase installed renewable capacity by 6.7 GW in the next three years, further increasing the existing 36 GW of installed capacity.