Reuters reported that Poland's second biggest utility Tauron TPE WA, is looking at possible acquisitions in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Mr Krzysztof Zamasz, the company's deputy head, said that "By year end, we want to change our strategy in order to accommodate to changing market conditions. We are ready for acquisitions on the Czech and Slovak markets."

The Czech energy market is undergoing a change with its major players CEZ, Energeticky a Prumyslovy Holding and German utility EnBW all selling and buying parts of their businesses to and from each other. The transactions, some of which have already been approved by the Czech watchdog, raised questions by the European Commission. The commission has been investigating CEZ and EPH, which have cooperated in energy market transactions, for their activities in the Czech power and coal markets.

Both firms have denied any wrongdoing. Mr Zamasz also said Tauron, which started trading energy on the Prague based Power Exchange Central Europe, might enter the Slovak energy trading market.

(Sourced from www.reuters.com)