Albania sells 4 hydro plants to Turk steelmaker

TIRANA – Reuters

Albania has signed an agreement to sell four small, profitable hydroelectric power plants to Turkish steelmaker Kurum, which will provide it with a stable source of power, the government said on Feb. 12.
“The contracts will be sent for approval to the Council of Ministers, the other respective agencies and finally to parliament,” the ministry said in a statement.

The sale of the plants, two on the northern Mat River and two on the southern Bistrica River, is the only successful privatisation this year after the Energy Ministry invalidated an offer by Albanian-U.S. Vetro Energy to buy the state oil company.

Albania will deduct a sum for unreturned value-added tax from the agreed price of $147.4 million and will continue to cover payments on a loan for the renovation of the two plants on the Bistrica River.
One of Albania’s biggest consumers of electricity for its electric arc furnaces to melt scrap, Kurum had sought an independent power supply for nine years because of chronic power shortages in the former communist Balkan nation.