London, May 11, 2026, 14:02 BST
- E.ON is set to acquire OVO’s UK energy retail operation; financial terms weren’t disclosed.
- E.ON has 5.6 million UK customers; add in OVO’s estimated 4 million, and that’s the scale of the proposed deal.
- The deal still needs a green light, likely coming later in 2026. The Competition and Markets Authority is one of several regulators on deck to scrutinize it.
E.ON has struck a deal to acquire OVO Energy’s UK retail business, a move that stands to make the German company the top household energy supplier in Britain—leapfrogging Octopus Energy after years of consolidation in the sector. Financial terms weren’t made public.
Timing is key here. UK energy retail, once the domain of nimble stand-alone suppliers, has gotten trickier: tougher capital requirements, more regulation, and sharp swings in wholesale prices have squeezed margins for smaller players. OVO pointed out these shifts have “altered the economics” of the industry. OVO Group
Together, the new group would reach approximately 9.6 million customers in the UK, folding OVO’s 4 million accounts into E.ON’s existing 5.6 million. That would put the merged company ahead of Octopus, which serves just under 8 million households, according to the Guardian.
E.ON and OVO ranked as Britain’s third- and fourth-biggest suppliers, according to Ofgem data cited by Reuters. E.ON’s chief operating officer for commercial operations, Marc Spieker, called the planned acquisition a move that “strengthens our retail business” and reinforces the company’s commitment to its UK customers. Reuters
Chris Norbury, E.ON UK’s chief executive, pitched the deal as putting “customers in control.” He highlighted solar panels, home batteries, EVs, and flexible tariffs. In this context, flexibility boils down to moving electricity usage to less expensive times, or tapping into home batteries and EV chargers to ease grid strain. E.ON News
Stephen Fitzpatrick, OVO’s founder, called today’s energy retail “more regulated, more capital intensive” and said scale matters more than ever. Chief Executive Chris Houghton added that long-term capital is now “non-negotiable” as OVO weighs its next steps. OVO Group
No changes for customers for now, according to E.ON. OVO and E.ON Next will keep running as distinct brands through the review phase; current tariffs stay the same, and service will hold steady until the transaction completes.
OVO’s Home Services arm—best known for boiler insurance and maintenance—is being sold off to Hometree. Simon Phelan, Hometree’s founder and CEO, said picking up the unit would bulk up its footprint and reinforce its role in home services and residential electrification.
E.ON plans to maintain OVO’s existing licence deal with Kaluza—the software platform behind OVO’s energy business—so OVO’s customers stay on the system. The company said it’s also weighing a broader rollout of Kaluza within the group beyond the UK. OVO describes Kaluza as a tool for billing, lowering service costs, and rolling out products faster.
Regulation looms as the key hurdle. Sign-off from the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority is still outstanding, and a beefed-up supplier could face tough questions about competition, customer service, and whether households will still have real switching choices. Management is targeting approval in the back half of 2026.
