Chinese sound out major European power companies over US EDP Renewables selloff
China Three Gorges, the Chinese state utility which owns a significant share of Portuguese power company EDP has contacted large electricity utilities in Europe including Enel and Iberdola to gauge if they are interested in buying EDP’s US offshoot – EDP Renewables.
The news, broken by Reuters, says that so far, the French power group Engie is the only one to have shown interest.
The selloff move will only go ahead if Chinese Three Gorges succeeds in its take-over bid for outright control of the Portuguese company.
According to the news agency, which cites three non-identified sources, the Chinese contacted the Italian company Enel, the Spanish Iberdrola and the French Engie as well as German utilities E.ON and RWE.
The same source says that of all these companies, so far Engie has been the only utility to have shown a stated interest.
China Three Gorges, which directly and indirectly controls 28% of EDP’s capital, launched a Public Acquisition Offer for total share of the utility while at the same time pressing forward with an offer to acquire a 100% capital share in EDP subsidiary EDP Renováveis.
The Renovavéis (Renewables) assets in the US are fairly attractive to the Chinese, but it is likely that the Trump administration will prevent these assets being controlled by a company owned by the Chinese State.
