The 1 January operational split between E.ON and Uniper – a plan first announced in December 2014 – is due to be followed by a spin-off of the latter later this year, following approval by E.ON’s shareholders.
The corporate split sees E.ON devoted fully to opportunities in renewables, networks and customer operations, while Uniper takes on the conventional generation and energy-trading assets of the former E.ON group.
E.ON CEO Johannes Teyssen said the arrangement allows both operations to “respond to the distinctly different challenges of the new and conventional energy worlds.
"This liberates us from continually having to make compromises. Our ambition is for both companies, which soon will be legally independent of one another, to become leading players in their respective energy worlds,” said Teyssen.
The separation of renewable and conventional assets was E.ON’s drastic response to the massive financial toll imposed on fossil generation as a result of the Energiewende – Germany’s move to a heavily-renewable energy system.
The original split plan was subject to revision in September 2015, when it emerged that the new E.ON will retain ownership of the former group’s nuclear assets.
E.ON’s fellow German utility giant RWE has since announced its own strategy to respond to the changing energy landscape, and will transfer its renewables, grids and retail operations to a new subsidiary that will be part-listed on the stock market.
