Bord Gáis Energy to be sold

22 Feb 2012

Bord Gáis Energy website

The Government has just announced that Bord Gáis Energy, the retail arm of Bord Gáis, is to be sold as part of today’s announcement on State assets and companies it is selling of or disposing of in order to raise billions of euro to write down debts and inject cash in programmes targeted at creating jobs.

Yesterday, Bord Gáis chief executive John Mullins visited Government Buildings on the same day that the Government approved a memorandum put forward by the Minister for Public Reform Brendan Howlin on the sale of State assets in order to raise between €2-3bn to pay down debts.

The sale of Bord Gáis Energy will apparently not include the two gas interconnectors or its gas transmission or distribution systems.

The Government also announced it would be selling off some of ESB’s power generation capacity. However, it is not going to proceed with selling off a minority stake in ESB.

Bord Gáis Energy’s retail division is anticipated to be worth between €1bn and €1.4bn. It is an all-island business that serves over 900,000 gas and electricity customers: (600,000 gas customers and 300,000 electricity customers). It sells gas and electricity to all market segments. Its related activities include call centre management, billing and sales and marketing. It also provides appliance servicing products.

Bord Gáis is expected to release a statement in the next few minutes.

Carmel Doyle was a long-time reporter with Silicon Republic

editorial@siliconrepublic.com