E.ON wins EU clearance to buy Electrabel assets

German utility E.ON won permission from the European Commission to acquire two power plants and certain drawing rights from Belgium's Electrabel. The Commission, executive arm of the 27-nation European Union, said that the transaction would not impede effective competition in the European common market.
"The Commission's examination of the deal showed that the horizontal overlaps between the activities of E.ON and the acquired assets are limited and that the transaction would not raise competition concerns," the EU executive said.

The transaction is linked to GdF Suez unit Electrabel's acquisition from E.ON of power generation assets and drawing rights to electricity capacity in Germany.
This is a result of undertakings given by E.ON to divest power generation assets and electricity drawing rights to resolve competition problems in Germany, it added.