Overview:
- German utility Eon undertook a capital increase, raising €1.35 billion to finance an installment of its contribution to Germany's nuclear clean-up fund.
- Germany's biggest power producer increased its share capital by 10%, selling 200 million new shares to institutional investors through an accelerated book-building.
- Eon said proceeds from the secondary offering will pay an installment of its share of a €23.6 billion bill to store the country's toxic waste that it and Germany's three other nuclear power operators have agreed to foot.
- Germany has a target of phasing out nuclear power by 2022, and operators have been asked to contribute to a fund that will cover the cost of dismantling reactors and ensuring equipment and fuel is stored until it is no longer harmful (around 100,000 years).
- Eon and other traditionally conventional energy utilities in Germany have suffered significant losses since the country began increasing its renewable power capacity, which drove energy prices down.
- In 2016 Eon restructured, spinning off its conventional energy business into a new company, Uniper, which subsequently went public.
- The new Eon shares, which will carry full dividend rights dating back to January 1, 2016, will trade on the Berlin, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Hannover, Munich and Stuttgart stock exchanges.
- Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Citigroup were joint lead managers on the capital increase.
Ben Naylor - Regional editor