E.ON

History

E.ON came into existence in 2000 through the merger of energy companies VEBA and VIAG(Vereinigte Industrieunternehmungen AG; United Industrial Enterprises Corporation). In the United Kingdom, Powergen was acquired by E.ON in January 2002. In 2003 E.ON entered the gas market through the acquisition of Ruhrgas (now E.ON Ruhrgas). E.ON Ruhrgas is represented in more than 20 countries in Europe.

E.ON also acquired Sydkraft in Sweden and OGK-4 in Russia. Sydkraft and Powergen were rebranded to E.ON Sverige and E.ON UK respectively. In the United States, E.ON inherited Louisville, Kentucky-based LG&E Energy, via the acquisition of Powergen, and operated it as E.ON US, until 2010, when E.ON US was sold to Pennsylvania-based PPL for $7.625 billion. The sale was closed on 1 November 2010, with E-ON US becoming LG&E and KU Energy.

E.ON attempted to acquire Endesa in 2006, however this acquisition was overtaken by a joint bid from Italian utility Enel in conjunction with Spanish company Acciona. E.ON acquired about €10 billion of assets that the enlarged Enel was required to divest under EU competition rulings.

In July 2009, the European Commission fined GDF Suez and E.ON €553 million each over arrangements on the MEGAL pipeline. It was the second biggest fines imposed by the European Commission and first one on the energy sector. In 1975, Ruhrgas and Gaz de France concluded a deal according to which they agreed not to sell gas in each other's home market. The deal was abandoned in 2005.

In 2009, E.ON and RWE established an equally owned joint venture Horizon Nuclear Power to develop around 6,000 MWe of new nuclear capacity in the United Kingdom by 2025 at the Wylfa and Oldbury sites. However, in March 2012 E.ON and RWE announced they were pulling out of the project due to difficult financial conditions.

In August 2011, the company announced a possible loss of 10,000 of its 85,600 employees due to the German decision to close all the country's nuclear power stations by 2022, instead of by 2036 as the Bundestag had decided on 28 October 2010.

As a result, E.ON developed an enhancement program to reorganize the company. The company made progress in implementing its strategy and will increase its activities in growth markets outside Europe. The next step is to enter the Brazilian market.

In May 2014 the UK energy sector regular Ofgem ordered the company to pay 330,000 of its customers a total sum of £12 million due to poor sales practices the company engaged in between June 2010 and December 2013. At the time it was the largest penalty levied against a UK energy supplier.

In November 2014, E.ON announced to abstain from fossil energy in the future. The company planned to transfer its business segments around fossil energy and nucear power into a new company and to go public in 2016

Operations

E.ON is one of the major public utility companies in Europe and the world's largest investor-owned energy service provider. As result of mergers, E.ON inherited the subsidiaries of VEBA, VIAG and Ruhrgas in Central and Eastern Europe. E.ON is present in most of Scandinavia.

E.ON is organized into the following business areas:

Nuclear energy

E.ON operates six nuclear power plants in Germany through its subsidiary E.ON Kernkraft GmbH, employing about 2600 workers. It owns the following nuclear power plants:

It also owns one third of the Brunsbüttel nuclear power plant which was shut down in 2007 because of a long history of malfunctions and as part of a nuclear power phase-out, the plant has since not been used.

On September 10, 2015 E.ON announced that the nuclear power division would not be spun off as part of the future Uniper due to political pressure from the German government. Instead it will be retained by E.ON.

Windfarm projects

Eon is a major wind energy player across multiple countries. It has assets in the UK, Sweden, Germany, Poland and the USA. Notably E.ON UK, owns 30% of the London Array project, which is a very large wind generation scheme in the Thames estuary. Another notable wind farm is Roscoe, which was the largest windfarm in the world at the time of completion, and for a number of years afterwards.

Business services

E.ON Business Services (previously E.ON IT (until 30 September 2013), and is:energy) is the IT service provider of the energy company E.ON. It bundles business services for finance and HR as well as IT under a single roof and employs around 3,800 people. These are located at four legal entities in Germany (EBS GmbH, EBS Berlin GmbH, EBS Hanover GmbH and EBS Regensburg GmbH); plus legal entities in ten further countries (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Romania, Slovakia, Sweden and United Kingdom).

Before the VEBA and VIAG merged to become E.ON, these companies were provided with IT services by synergis GmbH and GEDOS mbH. After the merger in 2001, these two companies became is:energy. The new company was a partnership of E.ON Energie AG (74.78%) and Cap Gemini Ernst & Young AG (25.22%). In 2005 Cap Gemini Ernst & Young relinquished its minority stake to E.ON's regional suppliers. This created is:energy, which as a result of the change of partners became E.ON IS, a direct subsidiary of E.ON. In 2006, E.ON IS extended its product range to include telecommunications services. At the same time, the company's international expansion continued.

Financial data

Sports

E.ON UK sponsored the FA Cup for four years, from 2006 to the end of the 2009/10 football season. The four-year deal which included the FA Women's Cup and the FA Youth Cup was worth around £40 million. E.ON is the official energy partner of The Football League and sponsors a collection of home programmes on Channel Five in the UK. E.ON has previously sponsored ITV Weather, the Ipswich Town football club and the Rugby Cup.

Between 2000 and 2006, E.ON was the main kit sponsor of German Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund.

E.ON Ruhrgas is the main sponsor of the IBU biathlon World Cup and is the main sponsor of the Ski jumping World Cup.

E.ON Sverige has sponsored the home arena of Swedish ice hockey team Timrå IK since 2003.

E.ON was one of the main sponsors of 2007–2008 Dutch Eredivisie Champions PSV Eindhoven.

Arts

Between 1998 and 2014, E.ON spent more than 30 million euros ($41 million) supporting the Museum Kunstpalast, located next to the corporate headquarters in Düsseldorf.

In 2014, E.ON decided to sell Jackson Pollock's Number 5 (Elegant Lady) (1951), a painting the company has owned since 1980, at Christie's auction to keep funding the Museum Kunstpalast. Pollock had swapped it in 1954 with New York gallery owner Martha Jackson for the convertible in which he had a fatal accident two years later. In 1980, Ulrich Hartmann, head of VEBA's corporate board office, pushed for the purchase from art dealer Alfred Schmela. The acquisition was considered the foundation for E.ON's art collection of more than 1,800 works.

Facilities