E.ON may eye asset swaps for power plants - report

FRANKFURT, March 1 (Reuters) - E.ON EONG.DE may consider asset swaps when divesting some 4,800 megawatts of power station capacity, Germany's Boersenzeitung said on Saturday.

Investors have started assessing E.ON assets for sale after its shock announcement on Thursday it would sell parts of its high voltage power grid and sizeable generation capacity if the European Union dropped two antitrust cases against it.

Boersenzeitung quoted an E.ON spokesman as saying about the planned power station divestment, "An asset swap could be a good solution for us."

E.ON may consider as a partner French private utility Suez (LYOE.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) which wants to merge with state-controlled gas provider Gaz de France and in that context may have to divest its Belgian natural gas trading arm Distrigas (DISTy.BR: Quote, Profile, Research), it said, citing finance sector sources.

It also mentioned Spanish construction firm ACS (ANA.MC: Quote, Profile, Research) which it said may swap its stake in Iberdrola (IBE.MC: Quote, Profile, Research).

ACS on Friday denied another German report that it was interested in buying the E.ON power grids, or taking over the power plants if the assets became available.

The utility assets may also be attractive to financial buyers such as banks, infrastructure investors and pension funds, who value their stable cashflow.

(Reporting by Vera Eckert, Editing by Peter Blackburn)