Purchase contract signed: EnBW and Eni jointly acquire Gasversorgung Sueddeutschland GmbH (GVS)

Strong Alliance for the German Gas Market Fair Partner forLocal Authorities and Town Gas CompaniesKARLSRUHE (Germany) 28. 6. 2002 (ots/PROTEXT) - EnBW EnergieBaden-Wuerttemberg AG and Eni SpA are buying 62.22% ofGasversorgung Sueddeutschland GmbH (GVS) in a joint-venture. OnThursday evening, the relevant purchase contracts were signedbetween the Land of Baden-Wuerttemberg, which had until then helda 25% stake in the equity of GVS, as well as six local authorityshareholders, who owned a total of 37.22% of GVS, and thepurchasers EnBW and Eni. Option agreements were entered into withtwo shareholders, who together hold 4.38% of GVS shares. The joint-venture of EnBW and Eni is also planning to buy the22.4% stake in GVS owned by Neckarwerke Stuttgart AG (NWS), whichis a subsidiary of the EnBW group. That would take the joint-venture's stake in GVS up to 95.62%. All the contracts aresubject to approval by the relevant competition authoritieswhich the parties to the contract expect to receive during thesummer.

At the signature of the contract, EnBW Board Member PierreLederer confirmed the intention to make GVS an active player inthe liberalized gas market in Germany. Due to the pooling of thestrengths of EnBW (partnership concept, understanding of localauthorities and marketing competency in Germany) and Eni(procurement and transport competency as well as fall-back on itsown gas supplies), a strong alliance has been created forGermany. Eni, EnBW and GVS will be a fair and competent partnerfor the local authorities and municipal gasworks.

"We are very pleased to have finalised the acquisition ofGasversorgung Sueddeutschland today with our partner EnBW", saidthe Chief Executive Officer of Eni, Vittorio Mincato. "For Enithis is an important step for the expansion of the gas businessin a market of the size of Germany. It is the fourth- largesttransaction that we have carried out successfully; after ourentry into the Portuguese market, where we acquired 33.34% ofGALP, after the commercial agreements in Spain, where deliverieshave already started of 1.5 billion cubic metres of gas per yearfor a period of over 10 years, and after the agreement for supplyof up to 16 billion cubic metres of gas per year to Turkey, whichwill be delivered jointly with Gazprom via the newly-completedBluestream pipeline".

Gasversorgung Sueddeutschland GmbH (Stuttgart) supplies about750 towns and villages directly or indirectly via its 1,881kilometre-long pipeline network. In the 2000/2001 financialyear, GVS had sales of 74,223 GigaWatt/hours (GWh), generatingrevenue of approximately 1.7 billion euro.

Eni SpA (Rome), one of the world's leading energy companies,had turnover of 48.9 billion euro in the 2001 financial year,resulting in an annual profit of 7.8 billion euro. In the gasbusiness, Eni has a pipeline network that is larger than that ofalmost any company, spanning several continents, with its ownexploration and production sites, guaranteed sources of supplyand transport networks.

The EnBW Group, with over 4.5 million energy customers,annual turnover of 7.9 billion euro and an annual profit of 272million euro (2001) is one of the fastest-growing companies inGermany and the liberalised European energy markets. ots Original Text Service: EnBW Energie Baden-Wuerttemberg AGInernet: http://www.presseportal.de

EnBW Energie Baden-Wuerttemberg AG Corporate CommunicationDurlacher Allee 93 76131 Karlsruhe Telephone: +49 (07 21) 63-1 4320 Fax: +49 (07 21) 63-1 26 72 unternehmenskommunikation@enbw.comwww.enbw.com

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