SSE will today complete the £500m sale of its retail customer book to Ovo. The deal will propel Ovo to the top table in terms of scale, with SSE bowing out of the domestic retail market to focus on renewables generation and networks.
SSE will also keep its 550,000 business accounts and is pinning its hopes on energy services and demand-side response to counteract declining profit and spiralling bad debt (the firm is hiring someone to drive industrial and commercial customer participation in its virtual power plant).
The deal is structured as £400m in cash and £100m in loan notes. It marks a significant change to the established order, with fellow big six supplier Npower also being subsumed into Eon. SSE had originally been in talks to merge its retail business with Npower after SSE and then parent Innogy failed to agree commercial terms.
More detail here.
Related stories:
Ovo to buy SSE retail book, become second biggest supplier
Mitsubishi takes 20 per cent stake in Ovo
Eon wields the knife at Npower
Opinion: Amazon would be a good buyer for SSE plus Npower
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