Strategy and Objectives

E.ON is based in Essen, Germany, and has around 43,000 employees. With a clear focus on three strong core businesses – Energy Networks, Customer Solutions, and Renewables – we aim to become the partner of choice for energy and customer solutions:

Energy Networks: Energy networks link our customers together and are the hub for grid digitalization, such as the direct marketing of distributed energy. In Germany, about one third of distributed generating capacity subsidized by the Renewable Energy Law is connected to our networks. Regional energy networks are what makes the transformation of the energy system possible. E.ON is already a leader in network efficiency and will continue to set new standards in the future.

Customer Solutions: E.ON is expanding its top-quality offerings in the physical and digital new energy world for municipal, public, industrial, commercial, and residential customers in attractive regional markets. We strive to become customers’ partner of choice. This is based on a consistently superior customer experience, strong digital orientation, and high-quality service. In addition, we will continually improve or redefine our portfolio of products and services in response to customers’ demand for energy efficiency, distributed generation and storage, and sustainable mobility solutions.

Renewables: E.ON’s international renewables business focuses in attractive target regions (Europe and North America) and customer-relevant technologies (onshore and offshore wind, photovoltaic) for network companies, energy suppliers, large customers, wholesale markets, and government subsidy programs. Our industry-leading capabilities in project development and execution and in operational excellence already give us a tangible competitive advantage in this business.

Although each of these core businesses is independent and has its own business logic, combining them in a single company offers significant advantages. It will enable E.ON to acquire and leverage a comprehensive understanding of the transformation of the energy system and the interplay between the individual submarkets in regional and local energy supply systems. Being part of the same company will enable these businesses to work together to design customer-oriented offerings and package solutions for the new energy world (such as sustainable solutions for cities), to conduct joint stakeholder management, and to position the brand more effectively.

E.ON offers attractive opportunities to current and future employees by creating jobs and career opportunities in growth markets and by setting clear objectives. It offers investors a reasonable balance between dividends with good growth prospects, highly predictable earnings, and solid financing.

E.ON and Uniper have operated separately as independent companies since January 1, 2016. Dusseldorf-based Uniper has about 13,000 employees and focuses on the conventional energy world. It consists of upstream and midstream businesses that originally belonged to E.ON. At our Annual Shareholders Meeting on June 8, 2016, E.ON SE shareholders voted to spin off a 53.35-percent majority stake in Uniper, which had a successful stock-market listing on September 12. Currently, E.ON continues to have a 46.65-percent stake in Uniper. We intend to divest our remaining Uniper stake over the medium term. Furthermore, a Control Termination Agreement was concluded, which took effect on December 31, 2016, at which time Uniper was deconsolidated.

Alongside the demanding spinoff process, we launched three important corporate initiatives in 2016 in order to enhance our competitiveness and customer orientation. They will help us lay the foundation for lasting success in the years ahead. All of them are designed for rapid results and implementation.

Our focus on the new energy world and our commitment to put customers at the center of everything we do were the starting points for our new brand idea (“Let’s Create a Better Tomorrow”). Our new brand positioning aims for a strong emotional appeal and personality, built on what matters to our customers: brilliant experiences, giving them more; and smarter, sustainable solutions. These key brand pillars and our vibrant new brand design will enable our customer businesses to be distinctive in our chosen markets. At the end of 2016, our Italy regional unit already adopted our new brand positioning at the end of 2016. Our other regional units are following.

Successful digitalization is an integral component of our strategy, which was appointed a Chief Digital Officer last year. Under his leadership, we are conducting a Group-wide digital transformation initiative to explore ideas that will fundamentally improve our customer experience, accelerate process simplification and automation, as well as enable us to tap new sources of growth through new and/or disruptive business models. We have already identified and prioritized the most promising ideas, which we will validate and implement swiftly in the months ahead.

Under the project name Phoenix, E.ON is reviewing and optimizing our central functions and costs across the company in the wake of the Uniper spinoff. Its purpose is to make our central functions leaner and more customer-oriented so that we can continue to position ourselves successfully in the face of keener competition. As a result of Phoenix we intend to permanently reduce our controllable costs by €400 million.