E.ON Buys Majority Stake in Russian Power Plants

German power giant E.ON has completed a take-over of Russian power plant company OGK-4 in a deal worth €4.1bn.

E.ON CEO Wulf H Bernotat signed a final resolution at a consultation meeting in Germany in the presence of Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, giving the company a majority stake (69.34%) of OGK-4.

OGK-4 runs four gas-fired power plants and one coal-fired power plant with an aggregate installed capacity of around 8,600MW, producing about 6% of Russia's thermal generating capacity.

E.ON is keen to invest in the Russian electricity market, which it says has great growth potential given a hike in demand in the industrial sector and the need for large-scale investments.

OGK-4 is one of six large-scale power plant operators in Russia being privatized by the state-run holding RAO UES.

By staff writer