By Francesca Landini
MILAN (Reuters) – Five suitors have submitted non-binding bids for a minority stake in the carbon capture and storage (CCS) business of Italian energy group Eni, two source said.
The sources said the offers were filed last week by three financial investors – Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), HitecVision, Macquarie – and two industrial players – Italy’s Snam and Thailand’s PTT Exploration and Production Public Company Limited (PTTEP).
Eni and GIP declined to comment on the issue.
Contacts between the Italian group and potential investors started last year and are expected to intensify in the coming months when Eni plans to create a unit wrapping up projects under development in several countries including Italy and Britain.
Eni announced last year it intended to sell up to 49% of its CCS business as a way to raise money to fund the growth at the new venture. It was not immediately clear what valuation was being put on the business by the suitors.
The sale is part of Eni’s broader strategy to develop dedicated units – or satellites – and open up their capital to investors.
The Italian group has already set up Plenitude, a unit producing renewable power and offering gas and electricity to retail clients, and Enilive, which manages a network of multi-fuel stations and produces biofuels.
CCS technology removes CO2 produced by industrial processes from the atmosphere or captures it at the point of emission and stores it underground.
The International Energy Agency says CCS can play a vital role in achieving global climate goals.
But critics say it risks prolonging the use of fossil fuels and question its commercial viability.
(Reporting by Francesca Landini; Editing by Keith Weir)
