Portugal Shortlists Four Foreign Companies For EDP Stake

Portugal's government has shortlisted four foreign companies for the sale of its 21% stake in Energias de Portugal SA (EDP.LB).

German utility E.ON AG (EOAN.XE), Brazil's Centrais Eletricas Brasileiras SA (ELET6.BR) and Companhia Energetica de Minas Gerais (CIG, CMIG4.BR), and China's Three Gorges Corp., operator of the world's largest hydropower dam by power generation capacity, will now begin official talks with the government, it said.

The stake is being sold as part of a bailout agreement between Portugal and the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. Under the aid, Portugal has committed to shrink the size of the public sector and the government's control over the private sector.

EDP's privatization, expected to be agreed on by the end of the year, is seen as attractive because of the company's considerable renewable energies assets in the U.S. and Brazil.

-By Patricia Kowsmann, Dow Jones Newswires. Tel [phone], [e-mail]