(London) The British energy giant Shell announced on Tuesday that it intends to sell its retail electricity and gas business in the United Kingdom, Germany and the Netherlands, following a strategic review launched in January.
“This review has now been completed and, therefore, we intend to spin off these businesses,” Shell said in a statement to AFP on Tuesday, adding that “a sale process is already underway, with the intention of reaching an agreement with a potential buyer in the coming months”.
Shell, which does not reveal the amount at which the Shell Energy company was put up for sale, had invoked in January “market conditions which have changed”.
Energy distributors have been under pressure for several years and especially for two years, with a series of bankruptcies of suppliers in the United Kingdom, others having been absorbed or having been subject to government bailouts.
With the post-COVID-19 reopening of the economy and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, wholesale energy prices have soared, but suppliers are unable to pass these increases quickly to consumers in ceilings set by governments in the face of the severe crisis in the cost of living in Europe.
“Nothing will change for our customers during the sale process,” Shell assured on Tuesday, also saying it wanted to protect as many staff as possible in the transfer, while the announcement of the strategic review had raised fears for thousands of jobs.
Shell Energy has some 2,000 employees in the UK and powers 1.4 million homes in the country.
But neither the wholesale business activities and the supply of energy to SMEs under the Shell Energy brand nor those selling energy to individuals outside Europe are affected by this sale, specified the Tuesday group.
Asked by AFP, Shell did not wish to specify whether potential buyers had declared themselves, but Sky News had mentioned at the end of March possible applications from suppliers Ovo Energy, Octopus or Centrica, parent company of British Gas.
Octopus told AFP that it did not wish to comment. Contacted, the two other energy companies cited did not respond immediately.