British energy supplier SSE Retail has scrapped its merger plans with Npower (a subsidiary of Innogy), considering that the proposed transaction was not in the best interests of its shareholders or customers, even though it was provisionally cleared by the United Kingdom Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) in September 2018. The company was not able to agree on revised merger terms after the UK regulator Ofgem proposed a cap on energy bills.
SSE Retail will now move on and seek alternative options such as a standalone demerger, a sale or a listing on either the premium or the standard segment of the UKLA Official List.
The merger would have created the second British retail power provider, shrinking the "Big Six" to "Big Five" and creating a giant energy group with 11 million customer accounts (23% of the market), just behind British Gas in size (12.6 million).