Eon €1.35 billion 10% capital increase

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