RWE's EUR9.3 billion purchase of the commercial activities of Dutch utility Essent will create "the number one energy trading company in Europe", according to RWE's chief strategy officer Leonhard Birnbaum.

The transaction means that Essent will become RWE's operating company in the Netherlands and Belgium. The combined annual trading volumes of the two companies amount to 1,425TWh of electricity, more than 100 billion cubic metres of gas and 230 million tonnes of coal. "We have created a real