Romania is suspicious about possible Russian influence after Hungary made a vastly inflated bid for a major energy provider in Romania, energy minister Sebastian Burduja told the Financial Times.
Hungary’s state-owned energy group MVM has recently outbid other companies interested in a buyout of the Romanian gas and electricity provider owned by Germany’s Eon. Mr. Burduja told the FT that the takeover could be blocked on security grounds.
The Hungarian company offered to pay as much as €200 million for the 68 percent stake in Eon Energie, which the minister estimated to be worth no more than €50million.
That would be similar to Spain’s decision to stop a railway merger with a Hungarian company partly because of its ties to Russia.
“We have seen precedent in Spain where a transaction involving the Hungarian entity was rejected by a similar committee to the Romanian one,” he told the London newspaper.
“We will have to consider all of that then to reach a decision.”
Eon Energie România serves about 3 million Romanian customers with electricity and gas, and has a market share of about 40 percent for gas and 15 percent for electricity as per customer numbers.
MVM is Hungary’s second-largest company in revenue and has been the main importer of Russian gas to Hungary. It also operates a Russian-designed nuclear power plant in Hungary, which is being expanded under Rosatom, Moscow’s state nuclear giant.
The offer was far larger than what competitors, which included two state owned Romanian energy companies, were willing to pay.
Mr. Burduja said Romania’s intelligence services would assess the risk of MVM taking over Eon Energie. “We will] investigate further, probably also asking for a viewpoint from the national security establishment.”
“We will not allow Russian gas to enter the country,” Mr. Burduja said.
He added that the country was working to exploit its own natural gas resources and buy additional supplies on the spot market.
Romania is particularly sensitive to any Russian influence given its proximity to the Ukraine war and after it annulled a presidential election because of alleged Russian meddling.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has often criticized EU sanctions on the Russian energy sector, saying it was counter to European interests to “reject” cheap gas.
