OREANDA-NEWS. The transaction closed means EWE Aktiengesellschaft takes over the 15.79 percent share of Wintershall Holding GmbH in the East German company Verbundnetz Gas AG (VNG). The competition authorities, the boards of both companies and the VNG shareholders' meeting had previously approved the transaction.

The transaction will be executed with payment of the purchase price of EUR 320 million and will be financially effective retroactively to January 1, 2014. Wintershall and EWE already agreed on the sale in March 2014.

Wintershall, Germany's largest internationally active crude oil and natural gas producer, is increasingly concentrating on the upstream sector and is therefore divesting its own natural gas trading and storage business. The handover of the VNG shares is part of this strategy. In 2015 Wintershall intends to expand its global oil and gas production to 160 million barrels of oil equivalent. This represents an increase in production of more than half within one decade.