(Repeats story published late on Tuesday)
* Says CEZ not tipped off about raid
* EU interviewed about 20 staff
By Michael Kahn
PRAGUE, Dec 1 (Reuters) - European Commission regulators
investigating Czech power group CEZ <> are likely
focusing on issues surrounding the lignite market rather than
the wholesale power market, a top CEZ official said on Tuesday.
Director of Sales and Trading Alan Svoboda told Reuters the
probe likely stems from a long-term dispute over brown coal
deliveries and prices with privately-owned miner Czech Coal.
Another potential area was whether it blocked rivals' plans to
build competing power plants.
"The investigators interviewed about 20 managers and staff
and after two days they took some documents related mainly to
coal mining," Svoboda said in an interview on the sidelines of
an energy conference in Prague.
"I doubt there will be any significant investigation into
the wholesale power market."
On November 24, the Commission said that officials had
carried out unannounced inspections at CEZ headquarters and
another firm located in the Czech Republic to investigate
whether they violated EU competition laws.
Svoboda, whose company has stated it was cooperating fully
with the probe, said the recent market coupling between the
Czech and Slovak power markets and a liquid electricity exchange
serving the region offer evidence of a transparent market.
TRANSPARENT MARKET
"I can point to many things to show how transparent the
power market is," Svoboda said. "We have no way to distort the
market even if we wanted to, we are a price taker on the
wholesale market."
Privately-held investment group J&T, a CEZ partner in some
energy projects, has also said it was involved in the probe. The
two firms jointly bought German coal mine MIBRAG near the Czech
border earlier this year.
J&T also bought Czech assets from International Power
<IPR.L> and has agreed to sell a part of the package, a 49
percent stake in a Prague heating firm, to CEZ.
Czech Coal had complained to the Czech competition office
over the IPR asset sale but the regulators here cleared the
deal. The miners, however, have complained also to the European
Commission, Svoboda said.
He also said the raid caught CEZ by surprise, requiring the
company to call back a number of officials from a business trip
abroad and putting a damper on speculation it was tipped off.
The Commission has said it would look into how a Czech news
website obtained information about the impeding raid a day
before it started.
"The only preparation we had was about one-and-a-half years
ago when the Commission was visiting other utilities and we
realised that sooner or later we would also receive a visit,
since we belong to the top 10 European utilities" Svoboda said.
"We instituted guidelines on how to cooperate with
regulators so any potential on site investigation would be
smooth."
(Editing by James Jukwey)
((michael.kahn@thomsonreuters.com; +420 224 190 443; Reuters
Messaging: michael.kahn.reuters.com@reuters.net)
