Swedish energy firm Vattenfall is to sell off its majority share of Hamburg’s electricity grid in a a £460million deal.
The firm, behind the controversial plans for an offshore windfarm in Aberdeen Bay, will sell its 74.9% stake in the Stromnetz Hamburg grid company to the City of Hamburg.
The deal comes just a day after Vattenfall, which saw operating losses hit £1billion last year, announced it had sold off its Polish assets for more than£208million.
The sale of the grid company back to Hamburg’s governing authorities includes the option for the city to buy back the heating network in five years time. The deal is set to net Vattenfall around £250million profit, the company said.
“The agreement is fair for all parties and creates a foundation for continued good cooperation with the City of Hamburg. Together we can ensure the secure operation and future-oriented development of the city’s energy supply,” says Vattenfall senior vice president Tuomo Hatakka.
“We regret to have to sell the electricity network business, but will continue to have a strong presence in the region and work closely as a partner to the City of Hamburg.”
Yesterday the Swedish firm sold off its 18.67% stake in Polish energy utility Enea for around £208million, representing a loss of almost half what the firm paid for the stake in 2008.
Last year Vattenvall saw third quarter profits fall by more than 10% to £389mllion, with operating losses rising for the first nine months of the year to around £1billion due to impairment costs.
Earlier this week the firm, along with its partners in the European Offshore Wind Deveopment Centre planned for Aberdeen Bay, announced plans to appeal a block on siting a substation for the £230million windfarm project at Blackdog.
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