Romania's competition authority to clear Premier Energy's takeover of Distribuție Energie Oltenia "within days"

Romania's Competition Council will clear Premier Energy's takeover of Distribuție Energie Oltenia (DEO) "within a few days", the authority's president, Bogdan Chirițoiu, said on Friday, 6 November, at an industry event, according to Agerpres. "We are setting conditions for Premier, they have essentially accepted them, so we are very advanced," he said.

What is being acquired. In April Premier Energy announced an agreement with funds managed by Macquarie Asset Management for 100% of Felix Distribution Holdings, DEO's parent company, and 100% of Evryo Power, which provides operational services to the distribution platform. The transaction is worth about €700 million. DEO operates a network of some 80,000 kilometres in the counties of Dolj, Olt, Vâlcea, Mehedinți, Gorj, Argeș and Teleorman and serves about 1.5 million customers.

The conditions. On 16 October the authority put the buyer's proposed commitments out for public consultation. Its main concern, according to the institution, is that through vertical integration the new entity could use the informational and operational advantages of controlling DEO and reduce the ability of rival suppliers to win or keep customers. Premier Energy has proposed behavioural measures for 24 months from clearance, including the dissolution of Evryo Power, a strictly technical role for DEO in supplier switching and non-discriminatory access for all suppliers to the API interface used to exchange data with the distributor.

Background. In 2024 the group bought CEZ Vânzare, renamed Premier Energy Furnizare. With DEO, the former CEZ Distribuție, the supply and distribution businesses once owned by the Czech CEZ group come back under a single owner – which Chirițoiu described as "in essence, we are recreating CEZ". Premier Energy is listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange.

What comes next. If the commitments are accepted, the Competition Council will monitor compliance and the companies will report periodically. The group has said it expects the transaction to close in the second half of 2026.

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