October 23, 2020 – Dentons has advised international energy group Sev.en Energy on the acquisition of the Počerady power plant from ČEZ. With a capacity of 1000 MW, Počerady is the largest coal-fired energy generating plant in the Czech Republic.
The parties reached an agreement to transfer ownership of the plant to Sev.en Energy by December 31, 2020, instead of in 2024 as initially planned. The accelerated timeline will allow the company to speed up the process of modernizing and upgrading the plant to meet all emission standards by 2021.
“The purpose of this investment is to meet the EU’s and the Czech Republic’s most stringent climate and environmental requirements until the time when the Czech Republic obtains sufficient energy from other than fossil sources. We plan to reshape the Počerady power plant into one of the most modern capacities in the Czech Republic, which will safely take the energy sector to the zero carbon future,” says Luboš Pavlas, the group’s CEO, adding that “it was comforting to have the Dentons team on our side to provide valuable transactional and regulatory advice.”
Commenting on the transaction, Dentons partner Petr Zákoucký, said: “We were delighted to have played our part in driving this transaction. This deal illustrates how a key energy player, acting responsibly and constructively, can contribute to both the energy transition and to the country’s security of supply. It is always a pleasure and source of inspiration to work with Sev.en Energy.”
Partner Petr Zákoucký led the Dentons team, which also included Ivo Hartmann and Lucie Kubínyiová as the managing associates and, among others, other associates of the M&A / infra team including Justina Bodláková, Jan Tylš, Michal Pelikán, Adam Přerovský, Barbora Obračajová and Anna Urbanová.