Npower has reassured its business customers that they will not experience billing problems as a result of the proposed merger of its retail operations with SSE’s.
If the deal goes ahead, SSE will keep its business-to-business customers, while the new retail company will combine SSE’s domestic customers and Npower’s domestic and business customers.
The merger will require significant integration and billing systems changes tend to cause problems. Market analysis about the deal nods to the energy sector’s chequered record on integration as a potential stumbling block.
It remains to be seen how that plays out in the domestic market, but an Npower spokesperson told The Energyst that “the integration of the billing system will not have any implications” for Npower business customers.
“The intention is to use SAP for SSE’s domestic customers only as they are the only customers coming into the new company. SSE’s B2B business is not coming to the new company but stays with SSE. Npower’s SME customers are already on SAP while its large customers are not being moved onto SAP,” added the spokesperson.
This week Npower parent Innogy wrote down the value of its UK retail operation by £427m, citing hardening market and political conditions. Npower posted a £92m pre-tax loss for the nine months to September.
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