Stuttgart (dpa / lsw) – Savings Bank President Peter Schneider has confirmed his association’s interest in a share in the electricity network operator Transnet BW. To his knowledge, the savings banks in the southwest are on the shortlist for a possible award by the parent company EnBW, said Schneider on Thursday in Stuttgart. The system is “extremely interesting” and primarily serves customer demand for “green” financial products.

EnBW plans to sell 49.9 percent to Transnet BW. Half of this is to go to the state-owned KfW bank, while EnBW has started a bidding process for the other half. Transnet’s high-voltage grid, which is more than 3,000 kilometers long, is one of a total of four transmission grids in Germany. Wind power is to be transported from the north to the south of the republic on these electricity highways.

The savings banks in the southwest currently manage 124 billion euros in deposits, said Schneider. So it makes sense not to get involved in projects “in the tropical rain forest” but rather from the business area. “I am passionately of the opinion that the financial group as a public financial group must participate in the transformation,” said Schneider.