Essent Cancels Sale Of Essent Milieu

Dutch utility Essent NV said Wednesday it has decided to cancel the sale of Essent Milieu, its waste management unit, as the bidders' offers weren't satisfactory.

Essent spokesman Jeroen Brouwers told Dow Jones Newswires that the prices offered by the remaining bidders didn't meet the company's criteria.

In May, Dow Jones Newswires reported that three potential buyers were still in the sale process. They included the Orange consortium, consisting of infrastructure funds managed by Dutch banks NIBC Bank and Fortis Bank Netherlands; Covanta Holding Corp. (CVA) together with an unnamed financial party; and private equity firm PAI Partners, one of the people said.

Earlier this year, the lion's share of Essent's activities was sold to German utilities company RWE AG (RWE.XE) for EUR9.3 billion. This excluded Essent's power grids business and its waste management unit, Essent Milieu.

In February, Essent Mileu was put up for sale, in a deal that was being advised by ING (INGA.AE) and Credit Suisse (CS).

Essent wanted to sell its waste management before the completion of the takeover by RWE, which is due in the third-quarter of 2009.

As previously reported by Dow Jones Newswires, the waste management unit is likely to be valued at around EUR1 billion.

By Maarten van Tartwijk and Robin van Daalen; Dow Jones Newswires; [phone]; [e-mail]