| The road to acquiring Ruhrgas is open for the German energy concern E.on Düsseldorf energy giant E.on, whose main product is electricity, has won the battle for natural gas. The “battle” with opponents of his acquisition of the Essen gas company Ruhrgas lasted a full year and a half. German authorities, represented by the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs, twice gave E.on the go-ahead to acquire a 60% stake in Ruhrgas - back in June and in September last year, and the last obstacle to the deal was a lawsuit brought by nine energy traders. In their opinion, the merger could lead to the creation of a super-monopoly and would threaten their own existence in this market. The trial was supposed to begin last Wednesday, but the defendants reached an out-of-court agreement with the plaintiffs.
As the head of E.on Ulrich Hartmann and the chairman of the board of Ruhrgas Burkhard Bergmann announced on Friday, the withdrawal of legal claims from nine companies cost the two concerns 90 million euros in cash, as well as the acceptance of an obligation to supply E.on electricity to the plaintiffs at preferential tariffs and preferential pumping conditions their gas through the Ruhrgas gas transmission system.
This is the finale of the deal, which modern chroniclers tend to classify as one of the most dramatic stories in recent economic history. And for the head of E.on, the final “green light” for the “friendly takeover” of Ruhrgas also means the successful completion of his personal career. Next year, the now 64-year-old Ulrich Hartmann will retire and leave the “farm” in a form that is optimally efficient for the energy market. The new European energy giant will be able to reliably withstand any of the strongest blows in international competition. In addition, says Ruhrgas CEO Burkhard Bergmann, “Ruhrgas, thanks to E.on, acquires resources that will allow it to continue to make a reliable contribution to ensuring the security of Germany's gas supply in the long term.”
According to Bergmann, the merger of E.on and Ruhrgas will inevitably produce a synergistic effect: “As part of the E.on concern, Ruhrgas will be able to more quickly, actively and flexibly use its economic potential, which will contribute to more vigorous development of the company’s activities in international markets.” This fully applies to the further development of cooperation between Ruhrgas and partners - natural gas producers, the main of which has been the Russian Gazprom for three decades. Essen believes that the current challenge is to ensure the viability of long-term gas import contracts concluded by Ruhrgas for the period until 2030. At the same time, they are clearly aware that Russia needs billions of dollars in investments to develop new gas fields and develop gas infrastructure.
Ruhrgas also associates new financial opportunities in international markets with the upcoming merger with E.on - not only in the field of import and distribution of gas, but also in the field of its production. The last factor will inevitably entail a further deepening of cooperation with the Russian Gazprom. By the way, at the end of this year Ruhrgas and Gazprom will jointly celebrate the 30th anniversary of the start of Soviet gas supplies to Germany and other Western European countries.
As a Vremya Novostey correspondent was told at the company's headquarters in Essen, the guarantees issued to the plaintiffs by the E.on concern do not entail significant consequences for Ruhrgas. However, the most dramatic bargaining was with the Finnish state energy company Fortum, which was also among the nine complainants. Here the conversation was special, since the Finns “resisted” literally until the last moment before the start of the trial, which, as they believe, most likely would have ended not in favor of the birth of the megaconcern.
The total volume of Hartmann's deal with Fortum is estimated at 800 million euros. As a result, the Finns negotiated for themselves half a dozen stakes in companies in Scandinavia and Russia. Although in exchange for this E.on is owed two power plants from Fortum and 150 million euros in addition, the Finns clearly took advantage of E.on's desperate situation and, literally at the last minute, also “grabbed” the South German energy company EnBW, in which they own a 34.5% stake E.on's main French competitor, the state-owned energy company EdF. If we also include the expenses that E.on will inevitably have to bear in connection with the need to fulfill the conditions put forward in a special permit from the Federal Ministry of Economics in Berlin, then we can easily assume that the same 60% of Ruhrgas shares for which E.on For a year and a half, he waged a desperate struggle both with government officials and with individual private companies, which turned out to be truly golden. However, it would hardly have happened otherwise with a deal of this magnitude. Just yesterday, E.on, after the French state-owned enterprise EdF, was considered the second energy concern in the world, although among “private traders” it had long been in first place. With the final acquisition of Germany's largest natural gas importer, Ruhrgas, E.on will leave its European competitors behind.
This opens a new chapter in the European energy market. And according to Essen, it will be filled with life with the help of new large-scale long-term projects Ruhrgas with the Russian natural gas producer Gazprom. No one here doubts that this cooperation in the coming decades will be no less successful than over the past thirty years. Yuri Shpakov, Essen-Berlin |
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