GETTING OUT OF EUROPE AT EXACTLY THE WRONG TIME

摘要

Just as many U.S.-owned power companies are packing up and leaving the European market, the power sector there faces an investment boom. Over the last 10 years, more than 20 U.S. power companies invested almost $50 billion in acquiring assets or developing independent power projects in Europe. Several more have also invested in establishing trading operations, mainly in London. It all started in the early 1990s with Enron as an independent power producer and developed rapidly between 1997 and 2001 as U.S. companies looked for opportunities coinciding with the liberalization and privatization of Europe's power markets. U.S-owned companies built up a sizeable market share in generating capacity in England and Wales (rising from 6 percent in 1997 to 28 percent in 2001) and distribution (75 percent of network business in England and Wales in 1997). Using the United Kingdom as a foothold, a number of U.S. companies then looked to expand their operations in continental Europe.