PLUS news 11/03/2010
Retail-focused stock exchange PLUS has regaled investors again with news of upbeat trading volumes during January.
Spanish utility Iberdrola has received the European Commission nod to proceed with its proposed takeover of FTSE 100 giant Scottish Power in an agreed £11.6 billion deal creating Europe’s third-largest utility.
The deal signals ongoing consolidation in the European utility sector, driven by high energy prices and a relaxation of takeover rules by European governments.
Glasgow-based Scottish Power, the fifth-largest UK energy supplier, has oft been mooted as a takeover target and spurned an offer from E.ON only last year. As for Iberdrola, the Scottish Power deal leaves it second only to EDF and E.ON among Europe’s biggest utility behemoths, and should make it easier for the group to merge with another Spanish utility, since it will now be subject to European regulators likely to take a broader view of moves to build a dominant stance in the Spanish market than would local regulators.
A statement from the European Commission read that ‘after examining the operation, the Commission concluded that the transaction would not significantly impede effective competition in the European Economic Area or any substantial part of it’.
A dissident voice amid the throng was the Scottish National Party (SNP), which had hoped the Commission would launch a full inquiry on concerns Iberdrola may have benefited from what it viewed as unfair tax subsidies by the Spanish government.
£7,277 That’s what you would have in your portfolio if you had invested £6,000 into the six Company Watch recommendations in our April 2009 issue.
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Retail-focused stock exchange PLUS has regaled investors again with news of upbeat trading volumes during January.
The AIM All-Share index dipped and rose slightly but essentially failed to move much over the course of February, starting at 667.27 points and closing at 667.24 as the market took a breather.
Snowfall fails to help retail recovery