Poland’s planned curve-out of coal assets from its utilities would attract new investors, Amundi’s Marcin Fiejka said in Warsaw on Tuesday.
“Energy transformation is a low-hanging fruit,” Fiejka, head of EM CEEMEA Equity at Amundi, said at the Bloomberg Capital Market Forum. “Planned carve-out of coal assets should make Polish utilities attractive for new group of investors.”
The government seeks to spin off coal-fired power plants from the country’s biggest state-controlled utilities later this year. The plan, which has been delayed by several months, will allow power companies to focus on green energy generation. It would also given them better access to international financial markets, where funding for carbon-heavy investments has been in decline.
PGE SA, Tauron Polska Energia SA and Enea SA plan to spend tens of billions of zloty in the coming decade. Poland has said it needs to invest more than 1 trillion zloty ($245 billion) in the energy sector through 2040 to replace aging coal plants, which currently produce about 70% of its electricity.
Coal-exposed companies, which also include PKN Orlen SA and JSW SA have 18% share in Warsaw’s benchmark WIG20 equity index. For Amundi, Polish capital market needs more blue-chips to attract capital inflows.
(By Maciej Martewicz and Konrad Krasuski, with assistance from Maria Tadeo)