Change of ownership at Eggborough Power Station

5. 11. 2014

Energetický a průmyslový holding (“EPH”), a leading Central European energy group, and Eggborough Power Limited (“Eggborough”), which owns the 2GW Eggborough Power Station, are pleased to announce that agreement has been reached on the sale of Eggborough to EPH. Transaction completion is subject to approval by the European Commission.

Eggborough is an independent power producer located in North Yorkshire with a c. 2GW coal-fired power station comprised of four units which supplies c. 4% of the power in the UK, equivalent to powering c. 3 million homes. It employs c. 300 full time staff members.

Neil O’Hara at Eggborough said: “We are pleased that EPH has made this investment and look forward to working closely with them.”

Daniel Kretinsky, Chairman of EPH said: “

The acquisition of Eggborough power plant reflects our genuine interest in the UK market and our appreciation of the highly competent management, skilled employees, technology and location of the plant. At the same time we recognize existing difficulties of conventional power generation. The currently announced form of capacity market unfortunately does not seem to be a real option for existing hard coal fleet. Hence our strategy is to exert our best efforts to maintain existing units operational as long as it is economically viable and subsequently take advantage of the site and the employees to build new capacities in the mid-term assuming adequate functioning of the capacity market or other regulatory support.

EPH is a leading Central European energy group operating mainly in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Germany. It is a vertically integrated energy utility covering the complete value chain in the energy sector. It includes 40 companies operating in coal extraction, electricity and heat production from conventional and renewable sources, electricity and heat distribution, electricity and gas trading and supply to end users. EPH is also the gas industry leader in Slovakia and the key shipper of natural gas from Russia to the European Union. The companies in the group employ more than 10,000 people. EPH’s generating plants currently have a total installed electrical capacity of almost 1,750 MW and their annual output is approximately 8.5 TWh. This transaction marks EPH’s first acquisition in, and entry into, the UK market.

Rothschild acted as financial adviser and Linklaters LLP as legal adviser to the selling shareholders of Eggborough and White & Case LLP as legal adviser to EPH.