China Southern Power Grid Co. and China Yangtze Power Co. are among companies weighing bids for Finnish power distributor Elenia Oy, which could fetch as much as 3 billion euros ($3.6 billion), people with knowledge of the matter said.
Elenia’s owners have asked suitors to submit non-binding indicative offers by mid-October, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. The sale has also drawn interest from State Grid Corp. of China and billionaire Li Ka-shing’s CK Infrastructure Holdings Ltd., as well as global infrastructure investors and pension funds, the people said.
Chinese firms have been stepping up overseas utilities purchases as they are attracted by the target companies’ steady cash flow and technical know-how. Chinese companies have announced $17.2 billion of outbound utilities acquisitions in the past 12 months, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
Elenia, Finland’s second-biggest power distributor, supplies heating and electric power to 420,000 homes and offices in more than 100 municipalities across the country. A group of investors including 3i Group Plc and GS Infrastructure Partners agreed to buy the business in 2011 from Swedish utility Vattenfall AB for 1.54 billion euros.
Source: Bloomberg
