E.ON agrees to buy Ovo in deal to create UK’s biggest energy supplier

The German energy group E.ON has agreed to buy struggling UK rival Ovo in a deal that would create Britain’s biggest gas and electricity supplier. The combined company will serve about 9.6 million customers, overtaking the market leader, Octopus, which serves almost 8m households in the UK. The value of the deal was not disclosed, but reports have estimated it at £600m. E.ON said the takeover represented a significant investment in the UK market and would bring bills down for customers. It said there would be no changes at its domestic energy supplying arm E.ON Next, nor at Ovo, while it awaited regulatory approval for the deal, stressing “existing tariffs will be honoured in full and service will continue unchanged”. Clearance of the acquisition is expected in the second half of the year. E.ON did not comment on what the deal could mean for jobs. It is understood that once it has been completed, the German supplier will establish a transformation office to develop the integration plans. It believes that a larger customer base enables faster investment in technology, products and services, which will benefit customers and support the energy transition. Ovo, the UK’s fourth-largest gas and electricity supplier, said it had also agreed to sell its home services business, which provides boiler insurance and boiler servicing, to Hometree. …