Daniel Kretinsky’s EP Power Europe (EPPE), a member of the EPH Group, will become the sole owner of the German Lignite Power Plant Schkopau.
EPPE, through its subsidiary Saale Energie, is purchasing 58 percent of the power plant from Uniper. The company will take over the entire plant effective October 2021. Germany is gradually abandoning brown coal use, with electricity production to sunset by 2038.
Saale Energie currently has a 42 percent stake in the plant. The Schkopau brown coal power plant is in Saxony-Anhalt. The plant has a net installed capacity of approximately 900 megawatts (MW).
We are committed to our role as a reliable employer to deliver new perspectives for the 150 highly qualified employees and will cooperate with Uniper to ensure their smooth transition to our company. At the same time we take responsibility for securing electricity supply, steam supply to the neighbouring industrial site as well as the delivery of Bahnstrom to Deutsche Bahn, said Jan Špringl, CEO of EPPE.
The transaction is subject to approval by the German antitrust authority.
Forbes magazine, ranked the entrepreneur the fifth richest Czech with assets of CZK 66 billion in 2019. EPH operates seventy companies in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Germany, Hungary, Britain, Ireland, Italy, and France.
EPH holding consists of two main divisions – EP Infrastructure (EPIF) and EP Power Europe. EP Infrastructure includes companies in transportation, distribution, and storage of natural gas, electricity distribution, and heat production. EP Power Europe includes mainly foreign electricity producers and mining companies. Křetínský became the majority owner of EPH in 2017, which now holds 94 percent of the shares.