The energy firm behind the controversial Aberdeen Bay offshore windfarm may sell stakes in its European assets after unveiling more than £600million in annual losses.
Vattenfall, which is owned by the Swedish state, admitted it could seek to float its continental and UK businesses after splitting them into a new division.
Its plans to restructure the business have prompted speculation the firm was already in discussions to sell off all its assets outside of Scandinavia in one package.
Vattenfall has said it was looking at the possibility of bringing in investors to “share risk” in its continental and UK businesses, but that Sweden had not made a decision on this.
“We have stated earlier that this is a decision for the owner and we have no processes ongoing to look for investors at the moment,” chief executive Oystein Loseth said on a conference call after the company released its fourth-quarter results yesterday.
Mr Loseth, who will leave the company next year, said listing the unit could be an option in a few years if the Swedish state wanted to take that path, but that no decision had been made.
Swedbank credit analyst Ingvar Matsson said speculation that Vattenfall would sell the business was a fair conclusion based on the new structure of the company.
“But it would be surprising if anything happened before the next election in Sweden,” he said.
Swedes are due to vote in September.
Scandinavia’s biggest utility is retrenching after 15 years of expansion into nuclear, coal and gas power generation only to be hit by the economic downturn.
The company put its 75% stake in the European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre (EOWDC) up for sale in October.
The scheme is Vattenfall’s joint venture with engineering firm Technip and Aberdeen Renewable Energy Group and involves erecting 11 turbines less than two miles from Aberdeen.
Vattenfall has also recently announced plans to sell assets in Germany and Poland.
Vattenfall suffered losses of £606million for the year after logging £2.8billion in impairments, largely driven by costs related to its gas and coal plants owned by Dutch subsidiary Nuon.
As a result, the company stopped paying a dividend to the Swedish state for the first time.
The Swedish state-owned firm posted a small rise in underlying profit, however, up 1.3% to £261.6million for the year.