(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
The next state privatization project will be Statkraft, Conservative Per-Kristian Foss predicts this week. The fortune teller Foss has probably read Ny Tid's article from 16 February this year, where editor Kjell Rønningsbakk in KraftNytt.no predicts exactly the same thing under the headline «Statkraft on the stock exchange?».
Telenor, Statoil, and now Statkraft. What's next? Probably NSB.
AS Norway is for sale.
Unlike Foss, Kjell Rønningsbakk is not so enthusiastic about the idea. The alleged reason why both Foss and Chairman Terje Vareberg in Statkraft open up to private owners is because Statkraft will be able to carry out its plans to buy other power companies in Norway and in Northern Europe. Around 40-50 billion, the company needs to grow big and powerful.
The same idea underpins the fact that Statoil and Telenor were left to private hands, a reason one hardly ever questions anymore because it has become part of the facts of the time. Large Norwegian companies must either grow and eat in Europe, or be eaten themselves. Waykeeping is not an option. Money injections from the Treasury are not mentioned. Competent managers do not receive AS Norway.
Growth for the sake of growth is rarely fruitful. When the goal of growth is that others should not be allowed to grow large, one often loses sight of the community's goals.
Statkraft is today mainland Norway's largest taxpayer with annual contributions of one billion kroner to the municipal coffers throughout the country, to the state and to the counties. A partial privatization will increase the demand for dividends to the owners, and the municipalities – which once gave up their natural basis against taxes and fees as consideration – are left as the loser. The state has for a long time forced the municipalities to sell their energy plants in order to be able to afford to cover expenses the state has imposed on them.
The specific arguments against partial privatization of Statkraft are numerous, among other things, a partially privatized Statkraft will not be required to supply the industry with power at politically determined prices, but basically it is quite simple: The state's task is to ensure that the population gets enough energy and that value creation in Norway accrues to the community. The state's task is not to transfer the "inheritance silver" to a handful of shareholders who shuffle on foreign companies.
