Essent Nuon merger a step closer

Wednesday 31 January 2007

The supervisory boards of Holland’s two biggest energy concerns Essent and Nuon voted in favour of a merger at the end of last week and are expected to formally announce their decision on Thursday, reports today’s Volkskrant.

According to the paper, the merger will result in the loss of between 1,500 and 2,000 jobs.

The shareholders of Essent will hold 55 percent of the new venture and its CEO Michel Boersma will head the merged company. The local government shareholders of the two energy firms have been informed of the proposed merger. Although their reaction is crucial, no decision is expected before the provincial government elections on March 7.

The biggest shareholder of the new company will be the province of Gelderland with a 20 percent stake followed by Noord Brabant with 17 percent.

Once the merger has been completed the new company – the name Nusent has been registered at the chamber of commerce – will have 4.3 million customers, 21,000 employees and a turnover of 11 billion euros.

Competition authority NMa is expected to demand the divestment of two or three power plants (the merged company will own around 50 percent of the country’s production capacity) and one million customers before giving its approval.

© DutchNews.nl

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