OREANDA-NEWS. E.ON signed an agreement to sell its 62.8-percent stake in E.ON Westfalen Weser AG to a consortium of municipal co-owners. As part of the transaction, E.ON will buy back retail subsidiary E.ON Westfalen Weser Vertrieb GmbH and certain other shareholdings held by E.ON Westfalen Weser AG. E.ON's proceeds from the transaction, which is expected to close soon after signing of the agreement, will total about ˆ360 million.

The sale of E.ON Westfalen Weser represents another important step in E.ON's reorganization of its regional utility business in Germany. E.ON announced in mid-2012 that it would adopt a focused, efficient approach toward making infrastructure investments that will help transform Germany's energy system. For this reason, E.ON intends to concentrate on four regional utilities: E.ON Avacon, E.ON Bayern, E.ON edis, and E.ON Hanse.

Ingo Luge, CEO of E.ON Deutschland, said of the agreement: “We'd like to thank our municipal negotiating partners for their role in making the discussions consistently constructive and respectful. This atmosphere enabled us to swiftly reach an agreement that's good for both sides. We're putting E.ON Westfalen Weser's reliable and technologically advanced power and gas networks into responsible hands.”

E.ON Westfalen Weser operates about 31,500 kilometers of power lines and about 4,000 kilometers of gas pipelines. The company, which also supplies drinking water and district heating, has its headquarters in Paderborn and employs about 1,000 people.

Power and gas customers in E.ON Westfalen Weser's service territory will be unaffected by the sale of the regional network operator. In significant portions of this service territory, E.ON Westfalen Weser Vertrieb GmbH is the default provider and thus the energy supplier for most customers.