E.ON Agrees to Sell Italian Coal and Gas Power Generation Assets
Düsseldorf, Germany–based energy supplier E.ON announced on Jan. 12 that it would sell its Italian coal and gas generation assets to Energetický a Průmyslový Holding (EPH), a Czech energy company.
E.ON has been looking for a suitor for the Italian operations since at least Nov. 30 when it announced it was embarking on a new corporate strategy focused on renewables, distribution networks, and customer solutions. At the time, the company said it would combine its power generation, global energy trading, and exploration and production businesses into a new, independent company, but the spinoff isn’t expected to occur until the second half of 2016.
The company has been struggling for a while. Last March, E.ON announced it would shutter nearly 13 GW of capacity—more than a quarter of its conventional fleet in Europe—to offset the “negative effects of a difficult economic and regulatory environment” in the European Union. At the time, CEO Johannes Teyssen said, “The ramifications of policy decisions in Germany and the related insufficient market prices for conventional energy continue to have an adverse impact on our generation portfolio.”
Since then, E.ON has been trying to divest itself of assets it no longer wants. On Nov. 30, it announced the sale of its Spanish and Portuguese businesses, which included about 4 GW of generation capacity. The newly announced sale to EPH will offload another 4.5 GW of generation.
Prague-based EPH currently owns and operates energy assets in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany, and Poland. In addition to its electricity business, it provides gas transport, storage, and distribution, has coal mining operations, and is the largest heat supplier in the Czech Republic.
EPH will take over the roughly 600-MW Fiume Santo coal-fired power plant in Sardinia along with six gas-fired plants located on the Italian mainland and in Sicily. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of this year subject to European Union competition authority approval.
“We are proud to have the opportunity to continue E.ON’s tradition in the conventional power generation [business] in Italy. Our strategy is long term and development focused. We look forward [to] working on this goal together with employees, trade unions, and other stakeholders,” Daniel Křetínský, CEO of EPH, said in a press release.
—Aaron Larson, associate editor (@AaronL_Power, @POWERmagazine)