Shell will team up with the Dutch pension fund manager PGGM to submit a bid offer for the acquisition of the Dutch electricity and gas provider Eneco, which entered a privatisation process in December 2018. Currently owned by 44 municipalities and estimated at around €3bn, the company will be brought to the market via a controlled auction, subject to shareholder approval. PGGM and Shell intend to further assess the potential opportunity of the procedure and believe Eneco has a potential for further growth.
Eneco is one of the largest producers and suppliers of electricity, natural gas, and heat in the Netherlands and currently serves more than 2.4 million business and residential customers. In 2017, it delivered nearly 70 TWh of energy in Europe (21 TWh of electricity, 45 TWh of gas and 2.8 TWh of heat). It also owns 3.1 GW of power generation capacity in Europe, of which 2 GW of renewable capacity (1.7 GW of wind and 212 MW of solar in 2017), 522 MW of thermal capacity and 507 MW of CHP capacity; power capacity in the Netherlands stood at 2.3 GW in 2017. It generated 10 TWh in 2017, including 8.7 TWh in the Netherlands. The group is also involved in several renewable energy projects.