By Friedrich Geiger
BERLIN-- E.ON on Monday announced the name and leader of the new
company which will be formed when the energy generator splits
itself in two.
The new company, to be called Uniper, will be headed by the
group's current chief financial officer, Klaus Schäfer, Germany's
largest utility said.
E.ON will split into two companies, with Uniper focusing on
conventional- power generation and E.ON concentrating on renewable
energy and distribution networks. Uniper will begin operations Jan.
1. Johannes Teyssen will remain chief executive of E.ON and Michael
Sen, currently CFO of Siemens AG's health-care business, will
become finance chief June 1.
The group's split, announced in November, is a response to
Germany's shift toward renewable energy. The country decided to
exit nuclear-power generation following the disaster at a plant in
Fukushima, Japan, and seeks to generate less power from coal in an
effort to reduce carbon emissions.
E.ON will ask shareholders approve spinning off a majority stake
in Uniper to the shareholders at the general meeting in June
2016.
E.ON will move its headquarters to Essen while Uniper will take
over the offices in the group's hometown of Düsseldorf.
"The main priority of everyone involved was for as few employees
as possible to face longer commutes," Mr. Teyssen said about the
selection of the two cities. The decision follows a poll among
employees. The future E.ON will have about 40,000 staff and the new
unit 20,000, the company said in November.
Both companies will have four management board functions.
Uniper's CFO will be Christopher Delbrück, now head of the group's
global commodities unit. Eckhardt Rümmler, currently chief of the
conventional and renewable power business, will become chief
operating officer of the new company. A chief commercial officer
will be added to the team in the coming months.
E.ON's management board will retain Leonhard Birnbaum and
Bernhard Reutersberg as leaders of the operating business. Jørgen
Kildahl and Mike Winkel will leave management.
The legal groundwork for the new setup will be laid in the
second half of the year.
The group's decision to part with its legacy business has
sparked allegations that E.ON wants to escape the long-term costs
of disposing of nuclear waste and demolishing nuclear plants. Some
fear German taxpayers will have to shoulder those costs. E.ON has
denied the allegations and said the new unit will have enough
assets to cover the expenses.
An earlier version of this story misspelled the name of Klaus
Schäfer.
Write to Friedrich Geiger at friedrich.geiger@wsj.com
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