BERLIN: Environmental group Greenpeace is exploring funding options to buy Vattenfall’s lignite business in eastern Germany in a bid to scale back the operations put up for sale by the Swedish state-owned energy giant.
On its website, Greenpeace Sweden released a letter to US bank Citigroup on Tuesday stating the environmental group’s interest in buying Vattenfall’s lignite operations in eastern Germany.
Citigroup is charged with selling off Vattenfall’s power plants and coal mines in the region, which are worth between 2 and 3 billion euros ($2.2 billion and $3.3 billion).
The Swedish energy giant decided to shed its eastern German lignite operations, after writing down the business by $1.8 billion in July, citing the slump in power prices and worsening business due to Germany’s transition to renewables.
Greenpeace Sweden’s program manager Annika Jacobson said in an e-mailed statement that Greenpeace wanted to “start serious discussions” with Vattenfall and that there were “many ways to finance such an acquisition” or “buying strategic parts.”
