M&A

3 November, 2009

Vattenfall gives nod to German grid sale-sources

FRANKFURT/BERLIN, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Sweden's Vattenfall [VATN.UL], operator of Germany's fourth-largest utility, agreed in principle to the sale of its German power grid, people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Tuesday.

The supervisory board of Vattenfall's German division agreed to the sale if the company gets slightly more than 500 milllion euros ($731.5 million) for the grid and if the buyer invests between 3 and 5 billion euros in the next ten years and does not cut jobs, the people said.

The sources declined to be identified as the sales process is confidential.

Vattenfall has been in exclusive talks with a consortium of Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE), Allianz (ALVG.DE) and Goldman Sachs (GS.N) for months and is now in the final stages of the process, people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Monday. [ID:nL0112897]

(Reporting by Peter Dinkloh in Frankfurt and Markus Wacket in Berlin)

Source: http://www.reuters.com