RWE, the second biggest German energy group, is ready to offer almost £11 billion (€13.7 billion, $21.7 billion) for British Energy, the Financial Times reported on Thursday.
The German energy group EON is to pay €11.8 billion for energy assets in France, Italy and Spain as part of a deal that ended its bid for the Spanish group Endesa, EON said on Friday.
The German energy agency DENA has warned of energy shortages in the electricity supply in the coming years as a result of the failure to build new power plants.
Germany's competition regulator the Federal Cartel Office has launched a probe of 35 natural gas suppliers suspected of charging excessively high prices, it said Wednesday.
Unions are threatening prolonged strikes at the Vattenfall headquarters in Berlin due to a conflict over wages. The unions IGBCE, who represents workers in the energy industry, and IG Metall, the industry union of metal workers, are demanding an 8 percent increase in wages, while Vattenfall is insisting on its offer of a 3.2 percent wage and a one time payment of 500 Euros.
