CEZ Group completes sale of Polish coal assets to ResInvest Group

Czech energy group CEZ has completed the sale of its Polish coal assets to Prague-based investment firm ResInvest Group. The sale includes companies that own and operate the Skawina and Chorzów hard-coal power plants, which generate electricity and heat. The companies signed the sale agreements last November, and the transaction was subsequently approved by the Polish antitrust authority. CEZ spokesperson Alice Horáková announced the news in a press release today. CEZ did not disclose the sale price. The sale is part of CEZ’s decarbonisation efforts.

The CEZ Skawina coal-fired power plant has an installed electrical capacity of 330 MWe and a thermal capacity of 588 MWt. According to CEZ, it is the second-largest heat supplier to Kraków and the city of Skawina. The CEZ Chorzów coal-fired power plant, with capacities of 238 MWe and 500 MWt, is one of the largest heat suppliers to Katowice and other urban areas in Silesia. Both plants also partly use biomass for generation and produced a combined 1390 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity and 5649 terajoules (TJ) of heat in 2023.

The sale also included CEZ Produkty Energetyczne Polska and CEZ Polska. CEZ Produkty Energetyczne Polska provides support services for the management of by-products from coal and biomass combustion. CEZ Polska is the holding company for CEZ Chorzów and CEZ Skawina. It also monitors the market in terms of energy regulation and legislation, and handles communications, PR and public affairs activities. According to CEZ, ResInvest Group submitted the best offer in an open auction process.

CEZ plans to continue developing companies in Poland focused on renewable energy sources and modern energy services (ESCO). These include companies in the Elevion Group, which offer comprehensive solutions for decarbonisation and energy efficiency.

CEZ is the largest Czech energy company, and the state is its majority shareholder, holding around 70 percent of its shares through the Ministry of Finance. It earned 23.4 billion crowns in the first three quarters of last year, with the group’s net profit down 6.4 billion crowns year on year. In January, CEZ announced plans to invest 80 billion crowns in the decarbonisation and modernisation of its heating business by 2030.

ResInvest Group is a privately owned trading and investment company founded, according to the commercial register, by Tomáš Novotný, a former manager at entrepreneur Daniel Křetínský’s energy and industrial holding company EPH. ResInvest Group arranges global supplies for major European and Asian energy companies. It specialises in bulk commodities such as solid fuels, biomass, agricultural crops, ores and metals, and operates in 12 countries.