Spaniards close in on Scottish Power

by Grant Ringshaw

SPAIN’s second-largest power company, Iberdrola, is this weekend finalising details of a £12 billion bid for Scottish Power.
The Spanish energy giant is understood to be preparing a formal cash and shares offer worth more than 800p a share for Scottish Power, Britain’s fifth-largest energy producer. The bid could be unveiled as early as this week.



Scottish Power was last Wednesday forced to admit that it had received a bid approach after its shares surged by almost 20%.

Iberdrola, which is being advised by the investment bank ABN Amro, admitted late on Friday that it was in talks with Scottish Power after a meeting of the Spanish company’s board. The two are understood to have been in discussions for the past two months.

Some analysts have argued that an 800p-per-share offer would be a full price.

Scottish Power would be a good match for Iberdrola. The UK company is expanding aggressively in wind power, in which Iberdrola is the world leader.

Scottish Power has been seen as a takeover target since it sold its underperforming PacifiCorp business in the US last year for $9 billion (£4.7 billion). Last year it rejected a 570p-per-share offer from the German giant Eon, which owns Powergen in the UK.

An offer could spark a bidding war. Eon, RWE, the parent company of Britain’s Npower, and EDF of France are said to be monitoring the situation closely.


Source: The Sunday Times

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