EnBW Energie Baden – Wuerttemberg AG sold its Polish assets back to Electricite de France SA (EDF) as Germany’s third-largest utility gears up for a 10 billion-euro ($13 billion) expansion of its renewable energy portfolio.
EnBW sold minority stakes in the assets for 301 million euros, the company said today in an e-mailed statement.
The move seeks to open “important financial freedoms” as the utility seeks to almost double its renewable energy capacity to about 6,000 megawatts by 2020, Chief Executive Officer Hans- Peter Villis said. The plan may require investments of 8 billion euros to 10 billion euros, according to the statement.
EnBW and peers EON AG, RWE AG (RWE) and Vattenfall AB have extended cost-cutting and asset-sale programs to curb losses from Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to close the country’s eight oldest nuclear reactors. EnBW reported a first-half net loss of 590 million euros after having to mothball two of its four reactors.
Seventeen percent of the company’s investments in the first nine months were channeled into renewable energy projects, including two planned offshore wind parks in the Baltic Sea. EnBW’s total investments were 926 million euros, a 43 percent- drop compared with the year-earlier period.
