RWE’s stake in Innogy has been transferred to Eon, following the European Commission’s clearance of the transaction a few days ago.
The transfer of the 76.8% shareholding in Innogy’s distribution and retail business to Eon paves the way for a complex asset swap between Eon and RWE.
The European Commission had approved the acquisition by RWE of certain generation assets owned by Eon in February, including renewables, but investigated the retail side of the deal over concerns that it may reduce competition in several EU markets.
Following the investigation, the Commission concluded the deal would not result in significant loss of competition in Germany, nor would the two companies increasingly compete against each other in Slovakia as a result of the transaction.
In the next few days Eon will also close the voluntary public takeover offer to Innogy’s minority shareholders.
The minority shareholders who tendered their shares to Eon last year will receive the offer consideration.
By the end of the acceptance period on 25 July 2018, 9.4% of the shareholders had decided to sell their Innogy shares to Eon.
Together with the 3.8% of Innogy shares that Eon has since acquired on the stock exchange, the utility holds 90% of all Innogy shares, meeting requirements under the German Transformation Act for the takeover.
As announced at the beginning of September, Eon intends to acquire the shares of the remaining minority shareholders of Innogy by way of a merger ‘squeeze-out’ and become the only shareholder of Innogy.
Eon chief executive Johannes Teyssen said: “The completion of the takeover of Innogy is the decisive step in the realignment of our company.
“As a customer-focused innovation driver, we will soon be able to focus systematically on our core businesses – intelligent power distribution networks and customer solutions. This will benefit our customers in particular, with whom we want to shape the new energy world together.”