The Federal Government is preparing to invest heavily in Elia at a time when the group needs capital to finance its investments in the Belgian and German high-voltage networks, L'Echo and De Tijd reported on Friday.
The financial arm of the Federal Government, Société fédérale de participations et d'investissement (SFPIM), is preparing to invest in Elia via Publi-T, its reference shareholder with 44.87% of the shares, according to a positive meeting held in September.
Geert Versnick, Chairman of Publi-T, confirms that discussions are underway with third parties who could add to the capital, without specifying their identity: "These parties believe in Publi-T and in the need for the energy transition that Elia wishes to achieve".
With 60% of investments financed by loans, the Elia group's capital requirements could amount to €4.5 billion over the next ten years, according to recent estimates. If Publi-T wants to keep its 45% stake in Elia, it will have to find some €2 billion.
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Until now, Publi-T has been able to keep up with successive capital increases. But this may no longer be possible in the future. In June 2022 Publi-T resorted to bridge loans to keep up with Elia's capital increase of €590 million. It was only a year later that it, in turn, raised €258 million from its shareholders, the Belgian communes, grouped together in a series of sub-holdings.
So far, Publi-T has been able to avoid being broken up but a representative of Walloon communes said that tensions between Belgium's regions threaten to stress the unity.
