EU: Commission approves Fortum’s purchase Uniper

European antitrust authorities granted unconditional approval for Finnish group Fortum’s purchase of Germany energy company Uniper, reported the Financial Times.

Despite Uniper’s protest, its parent company Eon confirmed in January it would sell its 47% share in the company to the Finnish rival, which is the largest electricity distribution operator in the Nordic region, for €22 (US$25.52) a share, generating proceeds of about €3.8bn (US$4.2 billion)

Margrethe Vestager, European competition commissioner said:, “Fortum and Uniper are important players in the generation of electricity in the Nordic countries, in particular in Sweden. We can approve their proposed merger, in particular because of the high level of interconnectivity between different countries in the Nordic area and because there is significant spare generation capacity in Sweden. As a result, we found that competition will remain strong after the merger.”

Full Content: Financial Times

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