The European Commission clears the sale of Viesgo (Spain) to EDP

The European Commission has authorised, under the EU merger regulations, the Portuguese energy group EDP to acquire the Spanish power company Viesgo, considering that the proposed acquisition would not raise any competition concerns. In July 2020, EDP reached an agreement with Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets (MIRA) to acquire MIRA's entire stake in Viesgo for €2bn including debt (net equity investment of €900m). Viesgo is active in power generation (around 380 MW of wind capacity and 25 MW of hydropower capacity in Spain, plus two coal-fired power plants (912 MW) that will be closed before 2021 but that offer a potential network access of nearly 1 GW) and in power distribution (power grid of 31,300 km and almost 700,000 delivery points in the regions of Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria, and Castilla y León). EDP and MIRA have agreed to set up a partnership for the electricity distribution businesses of Viesgo, Begasa and E-Redes, in which MIRA will take a 24.9% stake for €700m including debt and equity. This distribution alliance will operate 50,000 km of networks and distribute power to 1.3 million supply points. The transaction is expected to be completed by the end of 2020.

Viesgo was a regional company that was taken over by Endesa in 1991 and by Enel in 2002, which sold the company to E.ON in 2008. Viesgo was acquired by the investments funds Macquarie European Infrastructure Fund 4 (MEIF4) and Wren House Infrastructure in March 2015. In June 2018, the Spanish oil and gas company Repsol acquired the majority of Viesgo's unregulated assets, including 700 MW of hydropower generation (run-of-river and pumping storage) and two CCGT power plants with a combined capacity of 1,650 MW (Algeciras and Escatron); Repsol also gained access to 750,000 electricity and gas households and business customers. Macquarie retained Viesgo's regulated entities including the power distribution network business, two-coal-fired power plants located in Andalusia (324 MW Puente Nuevo and 589 MW Los Barrios), along with 462 MW of onshore wind capacity and 25 MW of mini-hydropower assets.