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		</div><p><a href="http://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/shareholders-back-power-merger.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full" title="Energy firm International Power has moved closer to foreign ownership" src="http://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/min-shareholders-back-power-merger.jpg" alt="Energy firm International Power has moved closer to foreign ownership"/></a></p>
<p>A UK power firm has moved to the brink of foreign ownership as shareholders approved a merger between International Power and France&#8217;s GDF Suez.</p>
<p>The boss of GDF Suez hailed the deal &#8211; which will see the French firm own 70% of the newly formed business &#8211; as the most &#8220;important merger and acquisition in Europe in 2010&#8221;.</p>
<p>The tie-up, which was cleared by 99% of International&#8217;s shareholders but is subject to regulatory approval, will combine the UK firm&#8217;s 45 power stations with GDF&#8217;s international assets.</p>
<p>The merger comes after British Energy was bought by another French company, EDF, for £12.5 billion in 2008. It leaves Britain owning just two independent energy producers in Centrica and Scottish &#038; Southern Energy.</p>
<p>It also follows an Office of Fair Trading report which revealed more than a third of the UK&#8217;s infrastructure &#8211; such as energy, water and transport &#8211; is under foreign ownership.</p>
<p>International Power owns the giant coal-fired station at Rugeley in Staffordshire, which powers the equivalent of half a million homes, and is a majority owner in the First Hydro hydroelectric plans in North Wales.</p>
<p>In August, the company reported half-year profits of £524 million after strong contributions from operations in Australia and the Middle East were offset by weaker profits in North America.</p>
<p>GDF Suez said the deal will make it a global leader in independent power generation, and the newly formed business will employ a combined 11,000 people.</p>
<p>Gerard Mestrallet, chairman and chief executive of GDF Suez, said: &#8220;The group will hold top positions in perfectly complementary and rapidly growing geographical zones, regions that will have substantial energy needs in the future.&#8221;</p>
<p>In the last 10 years, Ferrovial of Spain has bought BAA, the operator of Heathrow and Stansted airports, Germany&#8217;s RWE has acquired npower, and Australian bank Macquarie has taken control of car parks by buying NCP.</p>
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