European Commission clears acquisition of Uniper by Fortum

The European Commission has unconditionally approved the acquisition of Uniper by the Finnish utility Fortum after concluding the deal would raise “no competition concerns”.

The Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service has also cleared the purchase. Fortum said the conditions for the takeover have therefore all been satisfied, and the transaction will be completed by 27 June at the latest.

Margrethe Vestage, the commissioner in charge of competition policy, 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.”

Uniper’s main shareholder, Eon, accepted an offer from Fortum in January to buy its 46.65 per cent stake in the company for a total of €3.76 billion – or €22 per share.

The deal was reached despite strong opposition from Uniper itself, which decried the offer as “unsolicited” and “hostile”, saying €27 per share would be a fairer price.

Fortum had previously made a direct offer to Uniper at €19 per share, which was rejected by the company’s board.

In accordance with German stock market regulations, the offer was extended to all shareholders in Uniper. Fortum was only able to secure an additional 0.47 per cent stake, leaving it short of a majority holding.

Uniper was formed at the beginning of 2016 to separate Eon’s convention generation assets into a separate entity. The 55.65 per cent interest not retained by Eon were distributed to its shareholders.

In September 2016, Uniper was floated on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange at a price of around €10 per share.

The company’s generation capacity in the UK stands at 10.5GW, including 3.3GW of coal, 3.5GW of gas and 2GW of hydro.