The government does not intend to buy a stake in energy utility Nuon, economic affairs minister Maria van der Hoeven told the Volkskrant on Thursday.

In an interview with the paper, Van der Hoeven denied that the security of supplies will be in danger if Nuon is in private hands.
‘That is simply not true. There are 15 suppliers in the Netherlands, 40% of electricity comes from power plants which are in foreign hands. If Nuon was to say: we’re not going to supply to this place and that, then someone else would step into the gap,’ the paper quotes her as saying.
The province of Noord-Holland owns 9% of Nuon and is said to be the only shareholder (all local governments) which wants the company to remain partially in government hands to safeguard public interest.
But at the weekend it said that it would not be able to influence decisions with only a 9% interest in Nuon and called for the state to acquire a minority stake of around 15%.