More developments in a protracted takeover battle in the European energy industry gave investors in Scottish & Southern Energy pause for thought today. Germany’s Eon and a combination of Italy’s Enel and Spanish property group Acciona are fighting for control of Endesa, the Spanish utility. This morning Eon raised its bid for the third time in an attempt to see off its rivals ahead of this week’s closing date for its offer. Eon is now prepared to spend €42.3bn on Endesa, up 45% from the original bid. Meanwhile Enel and Acciona said they were prepared to offer €41 a share, compared to Eon’s €40 bid. The relevance of all this to SSE is that many traders believe that if Eon does not win the day, it will turn its attention to the Scottish group, and the latter’s shares have moved sharply higher as a consequence. But today’s increase in the Eon offer indicates the Germans are not about to give up easily, and some of the takeover froth was blown away from SSE, which slipped 34p to £15.12 by mid-afternoon. Endesa later recommended the Eon bid.

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI

You must be logged in to post a comment.