Czech industry and trade minister Vlček sees ČEZ nationalisation as economic nonsense

Industry and Trade Minister Lukáš Vlček (STAN) considers nationalising energy group ČEZ economic nonsense. It would cost hundreds of billions of crowns, which he said could instead be used to modernise the energy sector, Vlček told the Czech News Agency (ČTK). The ANO movement is among those that want to nationalise ČEZ after the election. Its chairman, Andrej Babiš, said the proposal should be part of the party’s election manifesto. The state should also have full control of the company, according to ANO deputy chairman Karel Havlíček. He said the company’s current ownership structure was complicating further development in the energy sector.

ČEZ is one of the largest energy companies in Czechia. The state is its majority shareholder, holding around 70 percent of its shares through the Ministry of Finance, while the remainder is held by private shareholders.

According to Vlček, even financing the nationalisation of the energy group would be problematic. “Either it would have to be financed from the state budget, meaning higher debt, or it would come at the expense of resources being unavailable for something else. The other option would be to finance it from ČEZ dividends. But ČEZ has a substantial investment plan that is important for the Czech energy sector,” Vlček said. He added that he considers the proposal to nationalise the energy group a populist outburst.

According to Havlíček, full nationalisation of ČEZ is necessary to make the country’s energy sector more predictable. He links it to lower energy prices, which he said would require reducing the regulated component of energy prices and boosting investment. He previously said full state control of ČEZ was crucial for investment in nuclear power and gas, and that the current ownership structure did not provide the necessary assurance that these investments could be secured.

At the end of last week, Babiš said on CNN Prima News’ Partie programme that ANO’s election manifesto, which will be published on 4 September, would include nationalisation of the energy group, among other things. He said buying out the company would cost around 200 billion crowns.

Elections to the Chamber of Deputies will be held on 3 and 4 October. The latest weekly election model by the STEM agency for CNN Prima News, published at the end of last week, shows that ANO would currently win the election with 31.2 percent of the vote, while support for the Spolu coalition has fallen to 20.4 percent. The third-placed SPD’s support remained unchanged at 13.3 percent. The model projects that the Mayors, the Pirates and Stačilo! would also enter the Chamber of Deputies.

At its meeting on Monday, ČEZ’s general meeting decided to pay shareholders a dividend of 47 crowns per share from last year’s adjusted profit. The company will distribute a total of 25.3 billion crowns to shareholders, with the state receiving more than CZK 17.6 billion as majority shareholder. ČEZ began paying dividends in 2000, after the completion of the Temelín nuclear power plant. Including this year’s dividend, ČEZ has paid the state CZK 349.7 billion in dividends. Since 2023, it has also paid a tax on extraordinary profits, known as the windfall tax. Over the past two years, the group has paid the state around CZK 60 billion in windfall tax.

Energy group ČEZ earned 30.5 billion crowns last year. Its net profit rose by almost three percent year on year. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) also increased, while the company’s profit adjusted for extraordinary items, which determines the dividend, fell year on year. It stood at 31.8 billion crowns last year, down 3 billion crowns from the previous year.