RWE AG FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Germany's No.2 utility RWE (>> RWE AG) on Thursday said its unit in charge of renewables, grids and retail would start operations as planned on April 1, putting it on track for a listing by the end of the year.
RWE in December announced it would pool its network, retail and renewables activities into a new entity and list about 10 percent of it to respond to an ongoing crisis that has pushed most of its conventional power plants into loss. The move came a year after larger peer E.ON (>> E.ON SE) had unveiled similar plans.
"The founding of our subsidiary and the planned IPO are mammoth tasks," RWE Chief Executive Peter Terium, who will head both RWE and the subsidiary until after the successful IPO, said in a statement. "Thanks to the excellent preparatory work done by our employees, we are, however, right on schedule."
The name of the new unit - tentatively dubbed RWE International SE - will be announced during the summer, RWE said, adding the listing should take place by the end of the year, with the exact date depending on market conditions.
Analysts expect the IPO to rake in roughly 2 billion euros ($2.3 billion), valuing the new group at about 20 billion euros, about three times RWE's current market capitalisation.
Since the restructuring announcement, shares in RWE are up nearly 5 percent, outperforming a 12-percent decline of German blue-chips over the same period.
(Reporting by Christoph Steitz; Editing by Harro ten Wolde and Victoria Bryan)
