"Green Electricity" for VERBUND customers in Slovenia

VERBUND, Austria’s leading power company, is taking another important step towards expanding its international activities by giving the official starting shot for APT Power Trading SL in Ljubljana today, Thursday. Situated in the centre of Southeastern Europe and experiencing a strong increase in energy exchange Slovenia is a very attractive location for VERBUND.

After the transaction of a joint venture in Italy and a cooperation agreement with Estag in Styria, VERBUND has continued its strategic alignment in Southern Austria and in the Southeast of Europe by setting up a subsidiary in Slovenia. In addition to Germany, Switzerland, Italy and Poland, Slovenia is now also taking a central position in the VERBUND’s international strategy.

The objective of VERBUND is to boost its operations in the markets of the individual countries in Central and Southeastern European according to their levels of market opening. As Europe’s leading renewable energy producer VERBUND expects good sales prospects in Slovenia, too.

"VERBUND has come to Slovenia to build new partnerships for the benefit of our customers", said Hans Haider, Chairman of the VERBUND Board of Management. He expects that the new activities will provide an additional boost for VERBUND: "Only powerful companies are attractive for customers and partners". Mr. Haider presented VERBUND to media representatives as an internationally oriented group which, with its 76 power plants and 3,700 km of high-voltage lines, stands for state-of-the-art and ecology-oriented technology. Running 71 hydroelectric power plants VERBUND is the most environmentally friendly large-scale power producer within the European Union.

In the past two years, since the customers have had the freedom of choice, the European power industry changed more profoundly than in the 50 years before, said Johann Sereinig, Member of the VERBUND Board of Management and competent for the power business, in allusion to the consequences of the Europe-wide deregulation. According to Mr. Sereinig, the national borders are becoming less and less relevant to the electricity industry. "The market which VERBUND is tapping today is the European single market. We have been focusing on redistributors and large and medium-sized industrial customers." According to Mr. Sereinig, APT Power Trading Slovenija ensures that Slovene customers have also access to a competitive power supply combined with international know-how and long-term security now.