FRANKFURT, Oct 10 (Reuters) - The number of suitors for a
minority stake in EWE has been boiled down to two as
the one of the year's biggest utility deals in Germany edges
towards the finishing line, three people close to the matter
said.
A consortium comprised of Australian infrastructure investor
Macquarie and German insurer Allianz is vying
with French buyout group Ardian for the stake, which could be
valued at 1.2 billion to 1.4 billion euros ($1.3-$1.5 billion),
they said.
Final offers were due at the end of September and other
suitors such as a consortium comprised of asset manager DWS
, Dutch pension fund PGGM and insurer Swiss Life
, was no longer in the race, the people said.
A decision is expected in the coming weeks, they added.
EWE and the suitors either declined to comment or were not
immediately available for comment.
While stable returns from regulated gas and power grids have
been a magnet for infrastructure funds in recent years, they are
expected to fall due to the unchanged low interest rate
environment in Europe.
Retail markets have also become more challenging across the
continent, including in Germany, where EWE has 3.2 million power
and gas customers and faces growing competition from smaller
players that are muscling in.
EWE has been looking for a new anchor shareholder since
German rival EnBW agreed to pull out in 2015 as part
of an asset swap in which EWE sold its majority stake in gas
firm VNG.
($1 = 0.9066 euros)
(Reporting by Arno Schuetze and Christoph Steitz; editing by
David Evans)