A number of parties have been invited to make bids for the two largest Dutch energy utilities Essent and Nuon, according to Monday’s Financieele Dagblad.

Nuon wants to sell off a minority stake and sent a ‘informative memorandum’ to around 10 parties at the end of last week, the paper reports. Indicative offers are expected within five weeks. Denmark’s Dong, the British firm Centrica and Sweden’s Vattenfall are seen as potential candidates.
Essent is to sell off its whole commercial arm (production, supply and trading) and has invited some 15 parties to make an offer, says the FD. Germany’s RWE is seen as having a good chance in the takeover.
Meanwhile Holland’s third largest energy concern Eneco is following a different course and is holding off advances from potential takeover candidates. According to the FD, it has already rejected approaches by Germany’s Eon and France’s Suez which owns the Belgian energy concern Electrabel.