(adds details from news conference, quotes)
PRAGUE, March 19 (Reuters) - Czech power firm CEZ
<> will look for opportunities to participate in
building nuclear power stations abroad as the Czech government
does not support nuclear expansion in its home market, the
company said on Wednesday.
"We will follow developments in all the target countries of
our expansion, in the region of central and eastern Europe, for
the possibilities to enter individual projects," CEZ mergers and
acquisitions chief Vladimir Schmalz said in a statement.
In March, CEZ won a 15 percent stake in a planned joint
venture to build and run two blocks at the Romanian Cernavoda
nuclear plant, along with state-owned Nuclearelectrica, Belgian
Electrabel, Italian Enel <ENEI.MI>, Spain's Iberdrola <IBE.MC>,
a Romanian unit of Arcelor Mittal <ISPA.AS> and German RWE
<RWEG.DE>.
Schmalz said CEZ would look for similar, minority stakes in
any possible nuclear project in the region.
"We do not want to build a nuclear plant on our own, or with
a majority ownership," Schmalz told journalists after a news
conference.
"Cernavoda is exactly the case, relatively low risk,
guaranteed return, and it helps us improve our capital
structure," he added.
He said the investment in Cernavoda would reach hundreds of
millions of euros, but refused to give a more precise estimate.
Schmalz said the low-indebted CEZ would also consider
bidding in a tender to build a nuclear plant in Turkey, which is
expected to be announced soon.
CEZ was also in preliminary talks with the Polish
government, which has been considering a reshuffle of its energy
portfolio, Schmalz said, but no conclusion had been reached so
far.
Last week, CEZ was dropped out from a tender to complete
construction of Bulgarian power plant Belene, while Enel and
German E.ON <EONG.DE> proceeded to the final round.
NO NEW CAPACITIES AT HOME
CEZ, the biggest central European company with market a
capitalisation of $44.7 billion, operates two nuclear power
stations in the Czech Republic, Temelin and Dukovany.
CEZ has been preparing an expansion of its 2,000-megawatt
Temelin plant but has taken no concrete steps due to the
cabinet's pledge not to support building new nuclear power
stations.
All major political parties in the Czech Republic support
nuclear energy except the Greens, a junior partner in the ruling
centre-right coalition, which insists on maintaining the pledge.
CEZ has however been upgrading its older Dukovany plant to
raise the capacity of its existing four units and aims at
reducing repeated shutdowns at Temelin.
The firm repeated it expected to increase domestic nuclear
power generation by 6-7 percent per year until 2012.
(Reporting by Jan Korselt, writing by Jan Lopatka; editing by
James Jukwey)
