Attempts by French utilities Suez and Gaz de France to sell or swap their assets in order to ease the European Commission's antitrust concerns regarding their merger are drawing multiple potentail buyers, Thomson Financial quotes financial daily De Tijd as revealing.
The potential parties include E.ON, RWE, EDF, Enel, Iberdrola and Centrica, the newspaper reported, without citing sources.
The European Commission approved the proposed merger of Suez and Gaz de France, in November 2006, subject to conditions, including the sale of certain assets.
Although the commission said that its initial concerns were mitigated when the companies announced their plans to divest Distrigas and SPE, and Suez was ready to give up its control over Belgian network operator Fluxys, a careful analysis revealed that the merger would have anti-competitive effects in the gas and electricity markets in Belgium and in the gas markets in France, reported the newspaper.