Uniper signs agreements to sell its generation business and distribution activities in France to EPH
- Exclusive sales negotiations successfully concluded today
- Transfer of Uniper activities in France to EPH to be completed shortly
Uniper and Czech EPH ("Energetický a průmyslový holding a.s.") have successfully concluded the negotiations announced at the end of December 2018 on the sale of Uniper’s activities in France. Corresponding agreements were signed today. All necessary approvals have been received.
The scope of the transaction includes mainly Uniper's French sales business, two gas-fired power plants in Saint-Avold (Lorraine), two coal-fired power plants in Saint-Avold and Gardanne (Provence), the biomass power plant "Provence 4 Biomasse" in Gardanne and wind and solar power plants. The activities and assets at these sites and at Uniper France's headquarters in Colombes near Paris will be fully transferred to EPH on completion.
At the end of 2018, Uniper received a unilateral and binding offer from EPH through its 100% subsidiary EP Power Europe and entered into exclusive negotiations with EPH. This was followed as from January 2019 by a mandatory consultation process with the employees’ representative bodies as well as the commencement of the process to obtain the necessary approval from the European Commission, which was concluded successfully in May 2019, and the approval from the French Ministry for Economy and Finance, which was received at the end of June. Uniper had already announced to initiate a strategic review of its French business in late summer 2018.
Eckhardt Rümmler, Chief Operating Officer of Uniper: "On the one hand, we are naturally delighted about the successful conclusion of these negotiations. On the other hand, we are parting company with more than 500 qualified employees and part of our corporate history. The decision by the French government to close our two coal-fired power plants long before the end of their technical operating lives would have affected our entire business. We therefore had to act entrepreneurially.”
About Uniper
Uniper is a leading international energy company with activities in more than40 countries and around 12,000 employees worldwide. Its business is the secure provision of energy and related services. Its main activities include power generation in Europe and Russia as well as global energy trading. The company is headquartered in Düsseldorf, Germany.
About EPH: https://www.epholding.cz/en/
About EP Power Europe: https://www.eppowereurope.cz/en/
This press release may contain forward-looking statements based on current assumptions and forecasts made by Uniper SE Management and other information currently available to Uniper. Various known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors could lead to material differences between the actual future results, financial situation, development or performance of the company and the estimates given here. Uniper SE does not intend, and does not assume any liability whatsoever, to update these forward-looking statements or to modify them to conform with future events or developments.
