Share in energy supplier Scottish & Southern gained as much as 3.6% at one stage yesterday as traders cited market talk of bid interest.
Share in energy supplier Scottish & Southern gained as much as 3.6% at one stage yesterday as traders cited market talk of bid interest.
Scottish & Southern Energy (SSE) would not comment on the share move.
One City trader said there was renewed speculation of a bid from Vattenfall, a Swedish utility, at 1775p per share.
Vattenfall has been mentioned as a possible bidder in several potential takeovers in the power sector during the summer. Other traders, however, dismissed the idea that it was considering making an offer for SSE.
In July, there was speculation in the City that the state-owned utility group was mulling a bid for SSE. At the close of dealing in London, shares in the Perth-based company added 14p to close at 1453p, a gain on the day of 1%.
Vattenfall is cash-rich and recently posted an 11% rise in second-quarter operating profit, boosted by its Nordic power generation unit.
It reported a quarterly operating profit of 6.3 billion Swedish crowns against SKr5.7bn in the same period a year earlier.
Vattenfall said operating profit for its Nordic unit rose 58% due to higher electricity prices.
Vattenfall claims to be the fifth-largest electricity producer in Europe. It generated 39.8 terawatts of electricity in the second quarter, in line with the same period the previous year. Hydro power and fossil-based power generation were up, while nuclear power generation was down.
Vatenfall has operations in Britain, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Poland and Sweden.
In the UK, the group wholly owns and operates the Kentish Flats offshore wind farm, comprising of 30 wind turbines capable of producing up to three megawatts of electricity each.
The company said the wind farms can supply enough power for 70,000 households in south-east England.
Vattenfall said this week that it still has no restart date for two closed northern German nuclear plants at Kruemmel and Brunsbuettel.
The Swedish company operates the power stations along with E.ON, the big German energy group.
