French Groups buy Teesside Power Plant
Posted on: February 29th, 2008 by Emma YoungOne of the UK’s largest power stations, the Teesside power station near Middlesbrough, has been purchased by French energy companies Gaz de France and Suez. The deal is thought to be worth £200m-£300m.
The deal comes at a time of strong investor interest in UK power stations. This reflects high electricity prices and the attractive profit margins available in the market.
The 1,875MW plant was sold by investment bank Goldman Sachs and US agricultural group Cargill. Cargill bought the Teesside plant from US energy group Enron after its collapse in 2001.
The power station is Europe’s largest combined-cycle gas turbine plant and can generate up to 3 per cent of the UK’s electricity with eight turbines.
Suez and state-owned Gaz de France, which are in the process of merging, will each take a 50 per cent stake in the Teesside plant, which opened in 1993 and employs about 200 people.
Few new power stations are being built, meaning that existing plants are changing hands at high prices. Centrica, owner of British Gas, is building a new 885MW gas-fired power station at Langage in Devon, but this will not start generating power until 2009 at the earliest.
Gaz de France and Suez are relatively small players in the UK energy market, but are talking about growth
www.centrica.co.uk
