September 2025 |
250907 |
ENERGY CHRONICLE |
As announced by the RWE Group on September 19, it will contribute its remaining 25.1 percent stake in transmission system operator Amprion to a joint venture with US financial investor Apollo. The Group will retain “operational control of the joint venture as the leading industrial group and experienced shareholder of Amprion.” It will also continue to manage its stake in Amprion, which will be fully consolidated in the financial statements. However, the dividends distributed by Amprion to the joint venture will be divided between RWE and Apollo. In return, Apollo will “provide €3.2 billion in equity capital, which RWE and Apollo will gradually invest jointly in Amprion”.
According to “Handelsblatt” (September 19), RWE and Apollo did not want to comment on further details. Little is known publicly beyond the information officially disclosed. However, it is likely to be a complex hybrid of a share and bond issue, referred to as a “structured equity investment.” As several insiders have confirmed, this form of financing was chosen because no buyers could be found for the Amprion shares at the energy group's asking price. The reason for this is that large investors such as Apollo consider the network returns of five to seven percent per annum set by the Federal Network Agency to be too low. In contrast, such structured equity investments in the network sector offer several opportunities to “leverage the return on equity set by the regulator and raise it to a high single-digit or low double-digit level.”
RWE expects the agreed transaction to be successfully completed before the end of this year.