Clara Denina, Stephen Jewkes, Toby Sterling: JUNE 24, 2019 / 4:43PM
LONDON (Reuters) – A domestic consortium set up by Royal Dutch Shell and pension fund manager PGGM has taken a bigger lead in the race for Dutch energy company Eneco as two other contenders have dropped out, sources close to the matter said.
French oil and gas company Total SA and Italy’s electricity giant Enel, which had teamed up with Dutch pension fund manager APG, have both withdrawn their non-binding offers, said the sources.
One of the sources added that APG was now looking for a new partner.
Infrastructure fund Macquarie and Japan’s biggest trading house Mitsubishi Corp are also still in the race for the company estimated by analysts to be worth about 3 billion euros ($3.4 billion), sources said. One said French nuclear energy utility EDF had also made a non-binding offer.