Italy's Enel to sell Romanian assets to Greek PPC for $1.3 billion

(Reuters) - Italy's biggest utility Enel Spa on Thursday said it will sell its Romanian operations to Greece's Public Power Corp (PPC) for 1.26 billion euros ($1.33 billion), as part of its plan to cut debt and focus on cleaner energy.

Including debt, the deal is valued at 1.9 billion euros, Enel said in a statement, adding that the transaction will generate a positive effect on its consolidated net debt of about 1.7 billion euros.

Enel in November presented a strategic update saying it was planning asset sales worth 21 billion euros and aims to lower its debt to 51-52 billion euros by the end of this year.

"With the sale of all our activities in Romania, we continue to implement the disposal plan that was announced during the presentation of Enel's 2023-2025 Strategic Plan," Enel Chief Executive Officer Francesco Starace said.

Enel's deal with PPC is expected to close by the third quarter of this year.

($1 = 0.9485 euros)

(Reporting by Aarati Krishna and Maria Ponnezhath in Bengaluru; Editing by Dhanya Ann Thoppil and Eileen Soreng)