BRUSSELS, Belgium—Centrica PLC, Britain's largest energy supplier, said Wednesday it will pay 515 million euros ($820 million) for a controlling stake in Belgium's SPE from Gaz de France.
Centrica said it will pay GDF in cash for its 25.5 percent stake, bringing Centrica's holding in Belgium's second-largest electricity company to 51 percent and valuing SPE at just over 1 billion euros ($1.59 billion). The rest of SPE is owned by Belgian banks and local government.
GDF, controlled by the French government, had to sell off the business in order to win European Union antitrust approval to combine with Suez and form one of the world's largest energy companies.
SPE is the only major rival to Suez' Belgian electricity unit Electrabel SA with just 20 percent of the power market. Both the Belgian government and EU regulators were worried that the GDF Suez would have had a monopoly over the Belgian power market without the sale.
The European Commission has repeatedly signaled concerns about high prices and lack of competition in Belgium where too few companies control both the gas and electricity markets.
Centrica said it expects to wrap up the purchase by September and will defer payment of up to 105 million euros ($167 million) until it sees the results of a government deal with Electrabel to force open the market by granting SPE power from Belgian nuclear plants.
SPE generated a profit of 39 million euros ($62 million) last year.
