Ambitious E.ON buys Enerjisa stake
FRANKFURT/ISTANBUL
Sabancı Holding’s Güler Sabancı (L), Energy Minister Taner Yıldız (C) and E.ON CEO Johannes Teyssen are seen at a ceremony to mark the new partnership. AA photo
German electric utility service provider E.ON aims to more than double Enerjisa’s share of Turkey’s power generation capacity, expanding its presence in one of the world’s fastest-growing energy markets with an acquisition revealed on Dec. 3.Verbund, Austria based company, handed over its 50 percent stake in Enerjisa to E.ON, according to a filing to the Istanbul Stock Exchange by Sabancı Holding, which owns the other half of Enerjisa. E.ON said yesterday that Enerjisa wanted at least 10 percent of the market by 2020, up from 4 percent now, Reuters has reported.
“In Turkey we found exactly what we wanted - a stable market with an interesting growth perspective and a superb partner that is well established,” chief executive Johannes Teyssen said, referring to Sabancı.
E.ON - hit by Germany’s decision to end nuclear power production by 2022 - has been looking for growth in fast-growing markets to offset the stagnating energy demand in western Europe.
As part of the Enerjisa deal, the German group will invest 150-200 million euros ($196-261 million) annually in Turkey until 2015.
“We are expanding the company’s targets with our new partner,” Sabancı Chairwoman Güler Sabancı said. “The goal is to reach 8,000 mW/h as of 2020. I hope and I beleive that we will achieve this earlier.”
Turkey’s annual power demand is around 210 terawatt-hours (TWh), and the government expects demand to rise at an annual rate of 6-9 percent from 2009-23.
Verbund still in Turkey
Meanwhile, Günther Rabensteiner, a Verbund board member, told Anatolia news agency yesterday that the company’s interest in Turkey was not over yet. “We will not withdraw from Turkey,” the agency quoted him as saying. The company is a partner in a build-operate-transfer model electricity generating business in the northwestern Turkish province of Bilecik.