E.ON has agreed to sell E.ON Rete, the company operating the gas distribution network for E.ON Italia, to a consortium consisting of Italian investment fund F2i SGR S.p.A. and AXA Private Equity. The enterprise value is about €290 million; the deal will net E.ON €255 million in cash.

E.ON's gas distribution business is managed by Verona-based E.ON Rete S.r.l., which has about 300 employees, operates 9,100 kilometers of gas distribution network mainly in northern Italy, and supplies about 600,000 gas delivery points.

Bernhard Reutersberg, member of the E.ON AG Board of Management, said about the sale: 'Our gas distribution business in Italy is relatively small and is subject to a strict regulatory regime. It offers us almost no opportunities to achieve significant scale advantages within the distribution business itself or to leverage synergies with other E.ON businesses in Italy. We therefore decided to divest our gas distribution business in Italy.'

The sale is subject to antitrust approval. E.ON expects to close the transaction by the end of the first quarter of 2011.

Tags: E.ON