LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's SSE (>> Scottish and Southern Energy) and npower, owned by Germany's Innogy (>> Innogy SE), announced plans on Wednesday to merge their British retail energy business in a deal that would create the country's second largest supplier.

A new independent company will be formed through the deal, which will be held by SSE shareholders with minority participation by Innogy, SSE said.

Combined, the two companies have around 11.5 million customers, making the new company second only to Centrica's (>> Centrica) British Gas, which has more than 14 million customer accounts.

(Reporting by Susanna Twidale; editing by Jason Neely)

Stocks treated in this article : Scottish and Southern Energy, Centrica, Innogy SE