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ENERGY

EU approves EON bid for Viesgo and parts of Endes

The EU's competition watchdog on Thursday approved a bid by German energy group EON for Viesgo, a Spanish affiliate of Italian energy group ENEL, and parts of Spanish rival Endesa.

Published: 19 June 2008 14:16 CEST
EU approves EON bid for Viesgo and parts of Endes
Photo: DPA

In particular, EON would acquire control of Endesa Europa, which controls Endesa’s activities in France, Poland, Italy and Turkey, and of certain minor activities of Endesa in Spain.

After examining the deal, “the proposed transaction would not significantly impede effective competition in the European Economic Area or any substantial part of it,” the European Commission said in a statement.

The deal for EON to pay €11.8 billion for the Endesa energy assets is part of an arrangement that ended its bid for the Spanish group as a whole.

EON dropped its bid for Endesa in April 2007 following a battle of more than one year against Spanish government opposition in exchange for an agreement that allowed the German firm to buy major assets in return.

The Commission had already authorized the proposed Endesa transaction last August.

However in March the initial agreement was modified, obliging the EU authorities to review their decision, which remained unchanged.

BUSINESS

France’s EDF hails €10billion profit, despite huge UK nuclear charge

French energy giant EDF has unveiled net profit of €10billion and cut its massive debt by increasing nuclear production after problems forced some plants offline.

Published: 16 February 2024 10:45 CET
France's EDF hails €10billion profit, despite huge UK nuclear charge

EDF hailed an “exceptional” year after its loss of €17.9billion in 2022.

Sales slipped 2.6 percent to €139.7billion , but the group managed to slice debt by €10billion euros to €54.4billion.

EDF said however that it had booked a €12.9 billion depreciation linked to difficulties at its Hinkley Point nuclear plant in Britain.

The charge includes €11.2 billion for Hinkley Point assets and €1.7billion at its British subsidiary, EDF Energy, the group explained.

EDF announced last month a fresh delay and additional costs for the giant project hit by repeated cost overruns.

“The year was marked by many events, in particular by the recovery of production and the company’s mobilisation around production recovery,” CEO Luc Remont told reporters.

EDF put its strong showing down to a strong operational performance, notably a significant increase in nuclear generation in France at a time of historically high prices.

That followed a drop in nuclear output in France in 2022. The group had to deal with stress corrosion problems at some reactors while also facing government orders to limit price rises.

The French reactors last year produced around 320.4 TWh, in the upper range of expectations.

Nuclear production had slid back in 2022 to 279 TWh, its lowest level in three decades, because of the corrosion problems and maintenance changes after
the Covid-19 pandemic.

Hinkley Point C is one of a small number of European Pressurised Reactors (EPRs) worldwide, an EDF-led design that has been plagued by cost overruns
running into billions of euros and years of construction delays.

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