Foreign energy companies only have limited opportunities to take over Dutch power companies now that the Unbundling Law has been approved, Belgium’s Electrabel and Germany’s EON say in today’s Financieele Dagblad.

Under the bill’s provisions, Dutch energy firms cannot become involved in ‘risky, cross-border alliances’ or set up ‘foreign activities’ – unless they separate off their electricity and gas distribution networks.
‘We had been interested in taking over a Dutch player but that is no longer possible,’ said an Electrabel spokesman. ‘We are now going to build our own generating plants and put Electrabel in the market in its own right.’
An Eon spokesman told the paper: ‘If the big Dutch companies had been forced to separate from their grid activities – as the bill originally intended – there would have been takeover opportunities.’.