Tirana, Albania  - Czech power company CEZ won preliminary approval Monday to take a controlling stake in Albania's only electricity distributor for 102 million euros
(149 million dollars), beating a rival bid by Italian utility Enel.

A nine-member privatization commission that reviewed both bids for a 76-per-cent stake in Operatori i Sistemit te Shperndarjes (OSSH) ruled that Enel's offer failed to meet "the minimal mandatory conditions for the technical performance."

The panel said it would urge Albania's government to give the nod to CEZ. Details on the decision were not immediately available.

OSSH supplies nearly 1 million customers in Albania, an impoverished, formerly communist country in south-eastern Europe plagued by spotty power supplies.

State-controlled CEZ, the Czech Republic's most profitable company, has been on an investment spree across the former East Bloc in recent years.

CEZ bought energy firms in Bulgaria, Romania and Poland as well as a 7-per-cent stake in Hungary's MOL. CEZ and MOL formed a joint venture to build gas-fired power plants. (dpa)