EDP EDP SA

E.ON AG (EOAN.XE) Wednesday stopped short of confirming it has submitted an offer for a government-owned minority stake in peer Energias de Portugal SA (EDP.LB), but the German utility said it is "looking at" the ongoing privatization process.

"I can confirm that we're looking at [the] EDP [privatization]," Chief Financial Officer Marcus Schenck told analysts in a conference call.

His comments come after people familiar with the matter last month told Dow Jones Newswires that E.ON had made a non-binding bid for the 21% stake in EDP, which the Portuguese government had pledged to sell under an agreement with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, in exchange for EUR78 billion in financial aid over the next three years.

Asked to explain the strategic rationale for bidding for a minority stake in EDP, Schenck said: "Owning a minority stake or even a majority stake in EDP in itself isn't very interesting for us."

He declined to detail what could make a bid for EDP interesting for Germany's largest utility by market value.

Market observers have said EDP's strong position in renewable energies makes it an attractive investment, as utilities across Europe seek to expand in alternative electricity generation. EDP's considerable renewable assets in the U.S. and Brazil could be particularly interesting for E.ON, which is already a major wind farm operator in the U.S.

E.ON is also seeking to expand into non-European markets to take advantage of higher growth rates in emerging markets. Germany's largest utility by market value had previously said Brazil is among the markets outside Europe it considers attractive.

-By Jan Hromadko, Dow Jones Newswires; +49 69 29 725 503; jan.hromadko@dowjones.com

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