Russian Billionaire Nears Deal for E.ON's North Sea Assets

Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman's LetterOne fund has emerged as the front runner for the acquisition of German utility E.ON's Norwegian North Sea assets, three industry and banking sources said on Tuesday.

The potential acquisition would signal a renewed push by the Russian oligarch to expand his private equity fund's oil and gas portfolio after being forced to sell his British North Sea assets as a result of U.S. and European sanctions on Moscow.

E.ON is hoping to fetch up to $2 billion from the sale of all its oil and gas assets in Norway, the British North Sea and Algeria as part of a broad restructuring.


(Reporting by Dmitry Zhdannikov and Ron Bousso)