{"id":25195,"date":"2026-02-25T22:27:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T22:27:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=25195"},"modified":"2026-02-25T22:27:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T22:27:16","slug":"frances-engie-strikes-deal-to-buy-uk-power-networks-for-10-5bn-utilities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=25195","title":{"rendered":"France\u2019s Engie strikes deal to buy UK Power Networks for \u00a310.5bn | Utilities"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">A French utility has agreed to buy the owner of the electricity cables and power lines across London, the south-east and the east of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/uk-news\/england\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\">England<\/a> in a deal worth \u00a310.5bn.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Paris-headquartered Engie said on Wednesday that it had struck a deal to buy UK Power Networks (UKPN) in a \u201cmajor milestone\u201d for the company\u2019s ambition to become the \u201cbest <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/business\/2023\/nov\/25\/race-to-get-uk-electricity-grid-ready-for-net-zero\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">energy transition<\/a> utility\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Engie will buy the electricity network operator, which operates about 192,000km of power lines serving 8.5 million customers across <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/uk\/london\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\">London<\/a> and southern and eastern England, from a Hong Kong-based conglomerate founded by billionaire business magnate Li Ka-shing, which has owned UKPN for the past 15 years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The chief executive of Engie, Catherine MacGregor, said: \u201cThe acquisition of UK Power Networks marks a major milestone in the implementation of our strategic priorities.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cBy reinforcing our position in electricity networks, it confirms our ambition to become the best energy transition utility and will support our growth momentum while improving our risk profile.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The deal has emerged almost a year after the UK\u2019s competition watchdog cleared Spain\u2019s Iberdrola to buy an 88% stake in Electricity North West (ENW), through its UK subsidiary Scottish Power, in a deal that valued the network at \u00a35bn. ENW, which served almost 5 million people in the north-west of England, has been rebranded SP Electricity North West.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Britain\u2019s electricity distribution network companies, which operate the electricity lines and infrastructure across six geographical monopolies, are about halfway through a plan to invest more than \u00a322bn in upgrading and expanding their networks by 2028 under the five-year programme approved by the industry regulator.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The investments, which are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/business\/2022\/nov\/30\/ofgem-tells-energy-network-firms-they-must-invest-without-increasing-bills-electricity\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">paid back via energy bills<\/a>, are considered crucial if Britain hopes to connect enough new low-carbon generation, batteries and electric vehicle charge points to help meet the UK\u2019s goal of reducing its use of fossil fuels in favour of green electricity.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>#Frances #Engie #strikes #deal #buy #Power #Networks #10.5bn #Utilities<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A French utility has agreed to&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25196,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25195"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25195\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}