Plans to merge Dutch energy companies Nuon and Essent have been dropped following a September 7 meeting between the two parties. "There was no longer any common ground for continuing the merger process," says a Nuon spokesman, as the companies could not agree on the respective stakes that each would hold in the merged entity, with valuation also said to be a point of contention.

The rationale for a merger was to create a company of sufficient scale to "represent the Netherlands effectively in the