UK’s biggest energy supplier is ‘on verge of splitting from tech arm’ in £10billion demerger
OCTOPUS Energy Group has sparked a £10 billion pound demerger from its tech arm Kraken.
The UK’s biggest energy supplier is planning to separate from its technology arm Kraken with plans to hire bankers to oversee the deal.
It is expected that the demerger will take place in the next year and would see existing investors given shares in the newly independent Kraken firm.
A minority stake in Kraken of up to 20% is expected to be sold to external shareholders.
One banking source told Sky News that Kraken could be valued at as much as £10.25bn.
It has now been revealed that Octopus is looking to hire bankers to oversee the demerger with Citi, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Stanley Morgan invited to pitch for the demerger mandate.
Kraken is an operating system which is licensed to other energy providers and water companies.
The Kraken platform is licensed to Octopus rivals EON and EDF Energy, abroad it serves Origin Energy in Australia, Tokyo Gas and Plentitude in Greece and France.
Kaken is chaired by Gavin Patterson, the former BT Group chief executive.
It is currently contracted to roughly 70 million customer accounts globally.
Speculation that the firm will eventually be publicly listed was sparked after the news of the demerger from Octopus broke.
Octopus Energy has around 7.5 million retail customers in Britain and a further 2. million outside the Britain, in January it announced that it was the country’s biggest supplier.
The firm passed British Gas with a 24% market share.
The £10 billion valuation of Kraken would reportedly suggest that the whole group, including the retail supply business was worth around £15 billion.
Octopus Energy declined to comment.
