Italy's Ascopiave signs Gazprom contract-source
MILAN, Nov 21 (Reuters) - Italian utility Ascopiave SpA (ASCI.MI) has signed a gas supply deal with Russia's Gazprom (GAZP.MM) and moved closer to a merger with a fellow utility Acegas-Aps, a source close to Ascopiave said on Friday.
Gazprom will supply Ascopiave with 120 million cubic metres of gas in the current thermal year which runs from October to September under Ascopiave's first direct deal with the world's largest gas producer, the source said.
Italian financial daily Il Sole 24 Ore said Gazprom and Ascotrade, the commercial unit of Ascopiave, signed the contract in the last few days.
"Our activity will be borderline compared to the very big international operators," Gildo Salton, Ascopiave's chairman, was quoted as telling Il Sole 24 Ore.
"But we have now created an independent space in the gas market that favours the process of mergers that we have been pursuing for some time," he said.
Ascopiave and its Italian partners in newly created company Sinergie Italiane have been aiming to clinch a multi-year supply deal with Gazprom, but uncertainty over the Italian partnership's structure has put talks on hold.
Salton said last month a conflict of interests had emerged after Italian utility Enia (EN.MI), a partner in Sinergie Italiane, agreed to a merger with another regional utility, Iride (IRD.MI), which in turn is a partner in other gas supply deal with Gazprom.
Ascopiave aimed to present another alliance for international supply deals soon, Salton told Il Sole 24 Ore.
On the domestic front, Ascopiave has been moving closer to a long-aspired tie-up with a fellow north Italian utility Acegas-Aps (AEG.MI) aiming to become the leader in gas business in industrialised north-eastern regions of Italy.
Ascopiave and Acegas-Aps have been considering a deal whereby Acegas-Aps would sell its distribution network and 51 percent in its gas trading company Est Energy to Ascopiave, which already owns 49 percent of Est Energy, the source said.
In exchange Ascopiave would take a stake in Ascopiave of just below 30 percent, a threshold which triggers a mandatory takeover bid in Italy, the source said confirming the report.
The deal may flesh out in the first weeks of next year, Solton told Il Sole 24 Ore. (Reporting by Nigel Tutt and Svetlana Kovalyova; Editing by Tiziana Barghini and Greg Mahlich)
