The Czech billionaire Daniel Křetínský is to become one of the largest shareholders in TotalEnergies after selling a stake in his electricity generation business, which includes several UK power plants, to the French oil company.
Křetínský, whose companies own stakes in Royal Mail and West Ham United football club, agreed to sell a 50% stake in his stable of European power plants to TotalEnergies for about €5.1bn (£4.5bn) in exchange for about 4.1% of Total’s share capital.
The deal will make his power generation business, Energetický a průmyslový holding (EPH), one of the French company’s biggest investors. It means Total will also own a share in a string of electricity generation assets across the UK, France, the Netherlands and Italy through a new joint venture.
Křetínský, the chair of EPH, said his company was “highly interested in becoming a long-term anchor shareholder of TotalEnergies”, and in creating a joint venture that was “a leading player in European flexible power generation”.
The tycoon, known as the Czech sphinx, became the first foreign owner of Royal Mail in its 509-year history after completing a deal to buy its parent company this year.
Křetínský, who is ranked 22nd on the Sunday Times rich list with an estimated fortune of £7.79bn, made much of his fortune in running coal, gas and power generation operations.
He also owns 27% of West Ham and 10% of the Sainsbury’s supermarket chain alongside stakes in several retailers including the US department store Macy’s, the trainer retailer Foot Locker and the German retailer turned wholesaler Metro.
Under the TotalEnergies deal, a new 50/50 joint venture will own enough UK power stations to meet the electricity demand of more than 3m homes, including Lynemouth power station in Northumberland the Kilroot power plant in Northern Ireland.
It will offer TotalEnergies, which is a big importer of liquefied natural gas into Europe, a network of customers for its gas and help to expand its power trading activities across Europe.
Patrick Pouyanné, the French company’s chair and chief executive, said: “Given our position as the number one gas supplier in Europe, this transaction enables us to fully capitalise on gas-to-power integration and create added value for our LNG chain, independently of oil cycles.”
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TotalEnergies is one of the largest oil and gas producers still operating in the UK’s North Sea basin. The company is also developing offshore windfarms in UK waters as well as solar farms in England and Wales.
Meanwhile, an electricity networks company owned by the Octopus Group has agreed to buy about 20 electricity distribution projects across the UK from Sweden’s state-owned energy company, Vattenfall.
Eclipse Power Networks will acquire Vattenfall’s independent energy networks for an undisclosed sum. This brings the assets under the Octopus Group umbrella, which also includes Octopus Energy, Britain’s biggest energy supplier. The deal means Vattenfall’s exit from the UK electricity distribution market, while its other British operations including onshore and offshore windfarms continue to operate.