Energy group Eneco, number three in the Dutch market, is looking at a number of different future scenarios for its commercial operations, including a merger, strategic alliance, private investors or an IPO, a spokesman told news agency ANP on Friday.

The company was responding to an article in Friday’s Financieele Dagblad which claimed the company had put itself up for sale. The paper says merchant bank Kempen has been brought in to lead the sale and that Klaas Westdijk, president of the supervisory board, has confirmed Eneco was looking for a buyer for its commercial operations.
The spokesman told ANP that there are no talks currently under way with any third party. ‘We are acclimatising ourselves. A decision will be taken before January 2011, when we have to separate our commercial operations from the grid division,’ the spokesman told ANP.
The market’s number one and two, Essent and Nuon, have already said they want to find a strategic foreign partner to be able to compete in the European energy market.
All three energy companies are owned by provincial and local government. Eneco has 61 shareholders. The biggest is Rotterdam city council with 31%, followed by The Hague with 16.5%.