Evangelos Mytilineos, who is in the process of listing his £5bn conglomerate Metlen in London, told The Telegraph he hoped to strike a rapid succession of deals upon joining the stock market that would allow his business to break into the retail energy market.
Mr Mytilineos said: “I admire Octopus, and I really admire the way it has developed. They’ve done a very good job… And we love competition. We love challenges.”
Metlen, a conglomerate spanning metals, energy and construction, already supplies electricity to homes in Greece and elsewhere.
Mr Mytilineos said: “We started in Greece from scratch about 10 years ago when we had one state monopoly. So we know very well how to start from scratch and we have developed the skills and the equipment and everything to do the job.”
His ambition to break into the home electricity market stems from a belief that there is large amounts of money to be made from the net zero transition.
“Let’s not forget that companies, including ours and Octopus, have become big as a result of the energy transition, and we are still in the middle of it. Some companies will enhance their position in the energy market and some people will lose their position, as happened in the UK two years ago.”
Metlen, which changed its name from Mytilineos last week in preparation for the London float, has built solar farms in the UK and worked on infrastructure for the National Grid, including high-voltage power lines such as the Eastern Green Link 1 project.
Plans to join the London Stock Exchange were announced last month. Metlen plans to retain its existing Athens listing but make London its primary home. Citi and Morgan Stanley are working on the float, which is expected in late 2024 or early 2025.
The company could attract a valuation of up to £5bn, which would propel it into the FTSE 100 blue-chip share index.
Mr Mytilineos said his ambition to break into the UK power market was unaffected by the current political uncertainty stemming from the election.
He said: “Power supply and generation is one of the most politically sensitive issues in the economy because It affects the totality of the population.
“We are used to this. We are used to the coming and going of the politicians on energy and until the energy transition settles one way or on an or another, we will have a sensitive regulatory environment as well.”
(telegraph.co.uk, 6 June, 2024)