$100 Billion Power Deal Reshapre Euro Energy Landscape

French and Spanish companies are in advanced discussions about pursuing a tricky $100 billion deal in the Spanish utility industry that could reshape the European energy landsca Électricité de France SA, one of Europe's largest utilities, is in talks about forming a bidding duo with Actividades de Construcción y Servicios SA, a Spanish construction company. The team would make simultaneous bids for two of Spain's largest utilities -- Iberdrola SA, the country's largest by market value, and Unión Fenosa, the third-largest, according to people familiar with the matter. Adding debt, the combined value of the transactions would be about $134 billion, not including any premium the buyers might pay. Europe's power industry has undergone major consolidation in recent years. The European Union has tried to usher competition into an industry once dominated by state-owned monopolies. Over the past decade it has tried to crack open the market, allowing a power producer in France to sell power in Spain, and an Austrian company to sell power in Italy. To create space for new players, it capped the market share of the older incumbents in their home markets. The re-election of a Socialist government in Spain earlier this month may favor more deal-making there. Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has hinted he won't oppose cross-border deals.