CEZ Group

At today´s meeting the Board of Directors of the power company CEZ decided on date of General Meeting of Shareholders and on proposal of the sum of the dividend from the last year’s profit to be submitted to the General Meeting of Shareholders.

● INVEN CAPITAL, the venture capital arm of the international energy conglomerate CEZ, invests in tado°, the European market leader in intelligent home climate control ● Smart thermostats are leading the smart home sector / market potential in Europe alone over 2 billion Dollars by 2019. ● tado° among the world's best funded IoT startups / Venture capital rises to 57 million Dollars ● Focus remains on being the leader in intelligent home climate control / planned expansion of services and increased international growth

Unit 1 of the Dukovany Nuclear Power Plant has been licensed to operate further. ČEZ received the order of the State Office for Nuclear Safety yesterday evening.

ČEZ IS ONE OF A FEW LARGE ENERGY COMPANIES THAT IS STILL MAKING MONEY. BUT ITS PROFIT IS DECLINING TOO, AS THE PRICE OF ELECTRICITY DECLINES. THE MAIN REASONS ARE THE LOW PRICES OF COMMODITIES, ESPECIALLY OIL, AND THE SITUATION WITH SUBSIDIZED ENERGY SOURCES. THESE ARE REVOLUTIONARY CHANGES, SAYS DANIEL BENEŠ. (Interview for Hospodarske noviny)

After thoroughly assessing all the related opportunities and risks, ČEZ decided not to submit a binding offer to buy Vattenfall’s German assets. The company is however prepared to further discuss other possible options and terms of the acquisition.

Net income adjusted for extraordinary effects was CZK 27.7bn in 2015, which exceeds original expectations by more than CZK 700m despite a further decrease in the realization prices of generated electricity and lower production in nuclear power plants. A positive effect was derived especially from the refund of a portion of tax on emission allowances from 2011 and 2012 and a successfully implemented program of savings and pro-growth measures. CEZ Group managed to cut fixed costs by CZK 3bn while increasing total revenues to CZK 210bn, primarily thanks to increased sales of electricity, gas, and heat to end customers.

ČEZ today submitted a non-binding offer to acquire Vattenfall’s German lignite and hydro activities. These assets represent an interesting opportunity to expand business of CEZ in a neighboring region. In Europe where coal is still crucial for the overall energy supply, CEZ has extensive know-how in operation of conventional power plants and of lignite mining, as a bridge technology to more renewable energy sources.

ČEZ Group resolves to improve its energy efficiency and reduce CO2 emissions per MWh generated in the Czech Republic by 46% before 2020 as compared to 2001. ČEZ thus joins other energy companies that declared their specific goals in the context of the Paris climate conference. ČEZ is actively negotiating in Paris for effective carbon pricing and interconnection of CO2 trading, and is one of about 100 international companies and other organizations that have already supported “business proposals.”

INVEN CAPITAL has acquired a minority stake in Sunfire, a company developing and industrialising the most progressive energy technologies that help reduce CO2 emissions and develop decentralized energy generation. ČEZ has thus joined forces with other venture capital funds sponsored by EDF and Total as well as with KfW, a German state-owned development bank.

Today, the CEZ Group officially informed the Government of Bulgaria of its intention to initiate international arbitration on the grounds of Bulgaria’s failure to protect its investment unless the current situation is quickly remedied and the damage caused duly compensated. The Group resorted to taking this step after a series of interventions by Bulgarian institutions that damaged the business operations of ČEZ companies in Bulgaria, and further as a result of the critical situation in the local energy market that has as yet failed to show any improvement. The claim amounts to several hundred million EUR.