Hungary’s MVM set to acquire E.ON’s energy supply operations in Romania

Hungarian state-owned energy company MVM has reached an agreement with German group E.ON to acquire its gas and electricity supply business in Romania, E.ON Energie, according to Romanian press reports.  

The deal, however, is expected to be only officially announced after Romania's December elections. MVM's broader goal is also to acquire E.ON's distribution operations in the future.

HotNews.ro first reported in March that E.ON might sell its supply operations in Romania, and that gas producer Romgaz had expressed interest in the acquisition.

At the time, E.ON CEO Leonhard Birnbaum said the company was "exploring the option" of selling the electricity and natural gas supply operations in Romania because of the deteriorating risk-return ratio due to frequent changes in the energy capping scheme.

E.ON had previously engaged in negotiations with Romgaz and OMV Petrom, but MVM later emerged as the likely buyer. 

E.ON Romania SA holds 68.18% of the company’s shares and the Ministry of Energy has the remaining 31.82% stakes.

The Romanian government has played down talk of a sale. E.ON has not decided yet whether to sell or not their energy supply business in Romania, and even if they decide so, the deal is subject to approval from local authorities, said Romanian Minister of Energy Sebastian Burduja. "I talked with the management of E.ON. They said that they have not even made a decision whether to sell or not,” Burduja said on October 2, accorded to Agerpres.

E.ON's supply division serves around 3.4mn customers and has 41% of the gas market and a significant market share in the electricity sector.

E.ON Energie Romania incurred a RON356mn (€71mn) loss on RON13.7bn (€2.75bn) revenue in 2022.

MVM Group is the second-largest company in Hungary and is in the top five in the region. It is present in 23 countries with more than 120 member companies, employing more than 18,000 people.

In an interview with Index.hu earlier this year, MVM CEO Karoly Matrai stated that the company aims to become the leading energy provider in the region by 2035. Serbia, Romania, and the Balkans are expected to be key areas of focus in MVM's expansion plans, though securing LNG capacity in Germany or Poland is also a possibility.

While Hungary remains MVM’s primary market, the company currently serves 1.5mn retail customers in the Czech Republic, holding a 40% share of the natural gas market and 10% in Slovakia.

MVM booked HUF5.1 trillion (€13bn) revenue last year, down from HUF7.6 trillion in 2022, but profits surged to HUF369bn from HUF73bn in the same period.