PARIS: Engie SA agreed to buy the UK’s largest power-distribution network for US$14.2bil, expanding its footprint in Britain just as the nation rushes to expand its grid to meet surging demand from renewables, electric vehicles and data centres.
The French utility will acquire UK Power Networks from Hong Kong billionaire Victor Li’s CK Group, gaining control of a regulated asset that serves about 8.5 million customers in London and South-East England.
The transaction, expected to close in mid-2026, will make the UK Engie’s second-largest earnings contributor after France as the company pushes to diversify beyond domestic gas networks.
Power grids worldwide are rolling out huge investment programmes to connect wind and solar projects while accommodating new electricity-intensive demand from artificial intelligence, electrified transport and heat pumps.
In the UK, distribution networks, which carry power from high-voltage transmission systems to homes and businesses, are key to that expansion.
Engie said it will finance the acquisition with roughly US$5.9bil of debt and hybrid securities and US$5.4bil from asset disposals. It also plans to raise as much as US$4bil in equity through an accelerated bookbuild to preserve its investment-grade credit rating.
Across Europe, network constraints are emerging as a key friction point in the push to electrify and decarbonise the economy.
Regulated grid assets offer stable, inflation-linked returns, making them particularly attractive to long-term infrastructure investors. — Bloomberg
