On Monday (5 September) Spanish energy group Gas Natural made its bid to join the list of European energy giants with a hostile €22.5 billion bid for Endesa, the country's biggest electricity generator. If successful, and Endesa looks like fighting the bid, the move would create a group with assets of €60bn in Spain, Portugal and parts of Latin America, and create a vertically integrated organisation. So the creation of national energy champions continues apace. In Germany and France this policy is most advanced. In Germany, the electricity market is effectively in the hands of a duopoly, RWE and E.ON, which have vigorous pan-European expansion strategies. RWE, with annual sales internationally of close to €49bn, mines lignite and generates electricity.