The Hague council has voted to retain its shares in energy group Eneco, unlike dozens of the company’s other local authority shareholders.

With more than 16% of the shares, The Hague is the second largest shareholder of the group which is owned by 53 Dutch local authorities. If sold off, Eneco would fetch hundreds of millions of euros, said the Telegraaf on Friday.

Many of the shareholders want to force a sale, saying it would bolster their finances. Until a week ago, the majority in The Hague council favoured selling its shares providing a major impulse for the projected sale.

Opponents of the sale fear that Eneco will be bought by a company not so concerned with sustainable energy and local employment as the present shareholders. But proponents argue that Eneco is already a purely commercial company after it was split off from grid operator Stedin.

Elections

The latest decision in The Hague is provisional and a definitive decision will be made only in March after the municipal elections.

Of the 53 local authority/owners, only Amstelveen and several small Frisian communities have so far opposed the sale. Rotterdam, by far the largest shareholder with a 32% stake, also favours the sale of the energy group.

Eight years ago, the two other main energy firms Nuon and Essent were also sold off, each for around €9bn. Nuon is now owned by Swedish state owned firm Vattenfall while Essent is the hands of German utilities group RWE.

Eneco is not large in terms of power generation but does supply energy to some 3.5 million Dutch households.