The government has failed to secure any acceptable bids for the sale of Bord Gais Energy .
Just in case you hadn’t noticed – the government were hoping to sell off the retail arm of Bord Gais to help get some funds to help us get out of the financial mess. More Here . It was something they were “advised” to do by the IMF.
Minister Pat Rabitte said that “none of the final bids received for (Bord Gais’) energy business were at an acceptable value.” He also said that “We certainly won’t be disposing of a valuable state asset unless we get good value”
We reported back in October that all but 2 bidders had pulled out .
The latest news will raise doubts about its ability to hit the €3 billion euro ( asset sale target agreed with the IMF/ECB as part of the bailout. It was estimated that the Bord Gais sale would bring in €1.5 Billion.
So – for now the big foreign energy companies haven’t got their hands on Bord Gais – but it probably won’t be long until they do. Over in the UK there is currently a lot of controversy about the high energy bills and the big profits of all of the energy firms.
Plans to sell a 25 percent stake in Aer Lingus and the state forestry firm Coillte were also abandoned this year.