German firm snaps up power giant

Britain's biggest electricity company, npower, fell into the hands of the Germans today in a £5.2 billion takeover, a deal which leaves vast tracts of the UK industry in foreign hands.

The deal also sparked fears that bills may start to go up for customers as npower has been one of the cheapest brands in its aggressive push to gain market leadership.

German power giant RWE, which snapped up Thames Water 18 months ago, today bid 275p a share in cash for npower's parent, Innogy. That values Innogy shares at £3.1bn. It has £2.1bn of debt from expansion by acquisition, which landed seven million domestic customers.