Still in the hunt

Gas Natural, the Spanish gas distributor, dropped its ambitious Euro25bn ($29.4bn) hostile bid for the power utility, Iberdrola, in May, after the country’s National Energy Commission vetoed the bid. But with some of the more aggressive European players still cash-rich enough to contemplate further acquisitions in the run-up to full European Union (EU) energy liberalisation in 2007, analysts predict more big gas-power tie-ups – whatever the regulatory obstacles national authorities may place in their path, James Gavin reports