RWE’s Suewag Energie Unit Sale Stalled After Price Disagreement

RWE AG (RWE), Germany’s second-largest utility, failed to sell its Suewag Energie AG unit to a group of bidders because of a disagreement over price.

“We don’t sell at any price,” Peter Hoscheidt, a spokesman for the Essen-based company, said today in a phone interview. No further talks are planned, according to a statement by Stadtwerke Frankfurt am Main Holding GmbH, part of the group of municipalities and regional suppliers bidding for the unit.

There are other interested parties for RWE’s 78 percent stake in the Frankfurt-based unit, Hoscheidt said.

RWE is under pressure to sell assets and cut costs after German Chancellor Angela Merkel ordered the permanent halt of all nuclear reactors by 2022 following Japan’s Fukushima atomic meltdown. Standard & Poor’s gave slow progress in a 7 billion- euro ($8.7 billion) disposal program as one reason for downgrading the stock last month.

“We are keeping to the timetable to execute it by the end of 2013,” Hoscheidt said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Tino Andresen in Dusseldorf at tandresen1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Will Kennedy at wkennedy3@bloomberg.net