EnecoUK’s Dutch parent company is to be acquired by Mitsubishi (80%) and Japanese utility Chubu Electric Power (20%) in a deal worth €4.1 billion. The transaction has still to be approved by the 44 Dutch local authorities who are the current owners of the supply company – currently the company says it has approval from 95% of shareholders – and it is expected to be completed during 2020. The Japanese consortium beat Shell and private equity group KKR to the deal, according to the Financial Times.

Eneco said it and Mitsubishi have been working together since 2012, for instance in the wind farm Luchterduinen. In Northern Germany, the companies combined to build the largest battery in Europe. Eneco and Mitsubishi are also partners in the development of Norther, a new wind farm off the Belgian coast. 

The company said that once the purchase is complete Eneco remains intact as an integrated and independent Dutch energy company, with its head office in Rotterdam. Eneco will become the European centre for all the energy-related activities of Mitsubishi and Chubu, which has over 10 million retail customers in Japan. Mitsubishi Corporation plans to transfer part of its 400MW of offshore wind activities to Eneco

In the UK, as well as supplying power, Eneco operates its own 200MW portfolio, with four wind farms and three solar parks  It has  corporate power purchase agreements (PPA) with Mars and Unilever, and its Sevon solar farm has a PPA with a Honda manufacturing site.  It also offers PPAs for other renewable developers.

In February 2019 Mitsubishi took a 20% stake in another UK energy supplier, Ovo.