NMa: licence required for merger of Essent and Nuon

There is sufficient reason to assume that a dominant position may emerge or be strengthened on parts of the gas and electricity markets in the event of a merger of the energy companies, Essent N.V. (Essent) and N.V. Nuon (Nuon). As a result, competition on the Dutch market may be restricted. For this reason, the Board of Directors of the Netherlands Competition Authority (NMa) has stipulated that a licence is required for the proposed merger.

After receipt of the notification of the proposed merger of Essent and Nuon on 17 March 2007, NMa collected information on the following product markets in the first phase. NMa envisages competition concerns on the electricity wholesale market and on the market for the supply of gas and electricity to small consumers. This also applies to the balancing market for electricity. Following its investigation, NMa concluded that there is no reason to assume that a dominant position will emerge on the wholesale market for gas and on the market for flexibility services. There also appears to be no likelihood that a dominant position will emerge on the market for the sale, rental and maintenance of heating and water-heating equipment, for advice on energy applications and supply, for security services and for metering services. A dominant position will also not emerge on the European market for CO2 emission rights and Renewable Electricity Certificates.


Nuon and Essent have presented a proposal to divest capacity and, by doing so, to remove NMa's competition concerns. At this stage of the investigation, it is not possible to ascertain whether the proposal presented by Nuon and Essent will remove any possible concerns entirely.


As a result of this decision, Nuon and Essent must apply to NMa for a licence for the proposed merger. If Nuon and Essent have submit an application for a licence, NMa will carry out a more detailed investigation into the effects of the merger on the above-mentioned markets. Any proposals made by Nuon and Essent to remove possible competition concerns will be taken into account in this more detailed investigation.