Thursday 24 October 2019

Competition watchdog investigates £500m OVO Energy and SSE deal

The competition watchdog has launched an investigation into OVO Energy’s proposed £500 million deal to buy SSE’s retail arm.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) will assess if the acquisition will lessen competition in the UK.

The deal, if approved, will make OVO Energy one of the biggest suppliers in Britain as SSE’s 5.7 million household customer accounts will be taken over by OVO, which already has around 1.5 million customers.

SSE will continue to supply energy to business customers in Britain and to business and household customers in Northern Ireland and Ireland.

The CMA is inviting comments from interested parties until 6th November 2019.

The deadline for the watchdog to announce its decision on whether it should refer the merger for a second phase of the investigation is 18th December 2019.