E.ON agrees to buy Ovo in deal to create UK’s biggest energy supplier

German energy giant E.ON has agreed to acquire UK rival Ovo, creating Britain's largest gas and electricity supplier with about 9.6 million customers [1]. The combined entity will surpass current market leader Octopus, which serves almost 8 million households [1]. E.ON, which has about 5.6 million UK customers, will integrate Ovo's 4 million customers, though it stated there will be no immediate changes to its E.ON Next arm or to Ovo while awaiting regulatory approval expected in the second half of the year [1]. Ovo has also agreed to sell its home services business, which provides boiler insurance and servicing, to Hometree [1]. Ovo founder Stephen Fitzpatrick stated the merger is necessary because 'energy retail is now more regulated, more capital intensive and increasingly dependent on long-term investment and scale' [1]. E.ON's Marc Spieker called the UK 'an important growth market' for the company [1]. The deal follows Ovo's struggles, including uncertainty over a regulator-approved plan to improve its capital position after failing financial stress tests [1]. E.ON UK CEO Chris Norbury said the acquisition aims to shift focus toward consumer flexibility, digitization, and technologies like solar and electric vehicles [1]. The combined group will continue Ovo's license agreement with the software platform Kaluza [1].