RWE AG announced that it will enter into a partnership with Essent N.V., the Arnhem-based leading Dutch utility. The companies have reached agreement on the terms and conditions for a binding all-cash offer by RWE to the shareholders of Essent for the acquisition of all the issued and outstanding shares of Essent. RWE will not be acquiring Essent’s electricity and gas distribution networks and waste management operations. Upon successful completion of the transaction, RWE will become one of the leading energy suppliers in the Benelux region with a strengthened position in North-Western and Central Europe.

Essent is a leading utility in the Netherlands and operates an attractive power plant portfolio based on gas, renewables, coal and nuclear. The company has a strong renewables business, which will complement RWE’s own efforts to increase its renewables capacity to 4,500 MW by 2012. Both companies’ efforts in the area of carbon capture and storage also complement each other. Essent (excluding the network and waste management activities) has pro forma estimated revenues and a pro forma normalised EBITDA for 2008 of Euro 6.55 billion and Euro 882 million, respectively, and approximately 7,800 employees. Essent’s principal shareholders are the provinces of Noord-Brabant, Limburg, Overijssel, Groningen, the Association of Municipal Shareholders Limburg, the Association of Municipal Shareholders Noord-Nederland and the municipalities of ‘s-Hertogenbosch and Tilburg.