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Oettinger suggests E.ON-RWE merger

11 January 2012 07:28 (UTC +04:00)

Baku - APA-Economics. The German energy giants E.ON and RWE refrained from commenting on the idea of merging the two companies, which was put forward by the Energy Commissioner GÃ¼nther Oettinger - himself a German, APA reports quoting Deutsche Welle.

In an interview, published on 10 January in the Rheinische Post, Oettinger deplored the absence of an energy group of international scale in Germany. â€œIf Germany wants to play a leading role on a global playing field, which is dominated by actors such as Exxon, Chevron [both US] or Gazprom [Russian], we need an national actor that can pull its weight,â€ he said, adding that the solution â€œmight be the option of a mergerâ€.

E.ONâ€™s spokesperson said that the company was already among the worldâ€™s leaders, at least in renewable energies; while RWEâ€™s spokesperson underlined the fact that the group operates on an international level with activities in the UK or in Eastern Europe.
Oettingerâ€™s comments are surprising since until now the European Commission has rather been intent on reducing the size of both E.ON and RWE â€“ by imposing transfers, particularly of their gas and electricity distribution networks. The Commission feels that the German market is insufficiently competitive, because it is overpowered by an oligopoly made up of E.ON, REW, the public regional group EnBW, and subsidiary of the Swedish company Vattenfall.