LONDON (Reuters) - Swedish utility Vattenfall has bought British home energy supplier iSupplyEnergy for an undisclosed sum, entering the highly competitive domestic energy retail market in Britain for the first time.
The move follows state-owned Vattenfall's announcement last month that it has started selling renewable power to British businesses, setting itself up to compete in a market that already has more than 50 suppliers.
iSupplyEnergy supplies more than 120,000 gas and electricity customers and employs 170 people, Vattenfall said.
"The acquisition of iSupplyEnergy is in line with Vattenfall's strategy to grow our customer base in northern Europe," Chief Executive Magnus Hall said.
Britain's energy market has attracted a range of new suppliers that are gradually gaining market share from the 'Big Six' incumbents which are Centrica's British Gas, SSE (LON:SSE), E.ON, npower, EDF (PA:EDF) Energy and Scottish Power.
Theresa May's ruling Conservative Party has pledged to cap energy prices, however, a move that would be the first government intervention since markets were opened to competition.