Energy SRV agreed to sell its stake in Fennovoima to the Russians, but now the value of the holding is zero and “the probability of a sale permit has decreased,” says the CEO

Construction company SRV estimates that the probability of obtaining permission from the authorities to sell part of the Fennovoima project to the Russian Rosatom has decreased since the start of the war in Ukraine.

SRV said on Thursday that it would reduce its holding in Fennovoima, which is building the Hanhikivi nuclear power plant, to zero.

Read more: SRV writes down its holdings in Fennovoima and Russia

SRV valued the 1.8 per cent holding in the Fennovoima project in its balance sheet at EUR 13.3 million at the end of last year, but reduced its value to zero in the first quarter at the end of March.

SRV agreed in early February, before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine of the agreement, as a result of which it will sell its stake in Fennovoima to Raos Voima, part of the Russian state’s Rosatom nuclear power group. The arrangement requires the permission of the Ministry of Employment and the Economy.

“In the post-war situation, we have estimated that the probability that the Ministry of Employment and the Economy will grant a permit has decreased,” SRV’s CEO Saku Sippola says.

Raos Voima applied for an official permit for the transaction. According to Sippola, the application is still being processed by the ministry.

In February, SRV estimates that the agreement will be implemented during the current year.

Read more: The Pyhäjoki nuclear power plant is progressing with Russian money, even if many shareholders want to leave the project – the background is a secret agreement, the terms of which are crushing for Finnish municipalities

SRV In 2015, it joined the Fennovoima project to obtain construction project management contracts. SRV is not a major energy user, unlike the other Finnish shareholders in the project.

SRV decided to try to exit the Fennovoima nuclear power plant project because the construction contracts have not been completed. SRV’s contract with Raos Voima should also terminate the construction contracts with Rosatom.

After the write-down, SRV still has an investment commitment of a total of EUR 18.7 million in the nuclear power plant project, the implementation of which, according to the company’s assessment, involves “significant” uncertainty.

Russian the big attack in Ukraine is at least complicated the progress of the Finnish-Russian nuclear power project. Minister of Economic Affairs Mika Lintilä (Central) has announced that it does not intend to present the construction permit for the project to the Government.

However, the design and construction of the power plant will continue, and the Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority will continue to carry out the safety assessment required by the permit.

The Finnish shareholders in the project own Fennovoima through Voimaosakeyhtiö SF. A few of the domestic shareholders have left the power plant project at an earlier stage.