French utility Veolia has signed an agreement to acquire Hungarian combined heat and power (CHP) producer Budapesti Eromu (Bert) from Czech energy group EPH, the company said, pending the necessary regulatory approvals.

Bert operates the 178MW Kelenfoldi, 113MW Kispesti and the 105MW Ujpesti gas-fired CHP plants in Budapest and satisfies around 55pc of the Hungarian capital's heat demand.

The company's profits rose by more than 70pc last year to 6.9bn forints from Ft4bn a year earlier on overall sales of Ft60.3bn, up by 30pc on the year mostly because of increased power sales, higher electricity prices and increased revenues from system services.

Kelenfoldi's utilisation rate edged up to 25.75pc in 2019 from 25.44pc a year earlier, while Kispesti and Ujpesti increased their average utilisation to 54.5pc and 55.1pc from 43.5pc and 48.2pc, respectively, according to data from grid operator Mavir.

Veolia already runs seven bigger power plants in Hungary with a combined capacity of around 430MW and directly provides district heating to more than 47,000 retail customers in 13 cities. It has been expanding its local generation portfolio in recent years.

Veolia also purchased Czech district heating provider Prazska Teplarenska (PT) in Prague from EPH to strengthen its position in the Czech energy services market. PT supplies heat to about 230,000 households and other customers