Mitsubishi Corporation is to take an 80 per cent stake in Dutch energy firm Eneco. Fellow Japanese firm Chubu will take the remaining 20 per cent as part of the €4.1bn deal.
Eneco is owned by 44 municipalities. It owns or has a share in 3.5GW of generation, of which almost half is onshore wind. The remainder is mostly thermal generation, onshore wind, solar and biomass. Eneco also has heat networks, electric vehicle infrastructure and energy services operations. The majority of its generation is in the Netherlands, with 245MW of onshore wind in the UK, along with 12MW of solar.
Eneco also owns a 34 per cent stake in the multi-gigawatt Next Kraftwerke virtual power plant in Germany.
The firm has worked with Mitsubishi for some years, as a partner on three wind farms and a 48MW battery that competes against thermal plant in Germany’s primary reserve market.
Mitsubishi and Chubu were named preferred buyers by Eneco ahead of Shell and the deal continues both Japanese firms’ push in to energy and business management.
“The company is taking advantage of its vast network and Eneco’s customer base to develop new products and services related to energy management,” said Mitsubishi Coporation.”
Mitsubishi last year took a 20 per cent stake in Ovo for £216m. Ovo is now trying to buy SSE’s customer book, a deal that would make it the UK’s second biggest energy supplier.
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