Three years ago, the phrase the Germans are coming was very apt as RWE and E.On took over the main UK utility companies Innogy and PowerGen respectively. At the time the government had just released the golden share allowing companies to bid without regulatory objection on these two national leviathans. E.On today announced that they are looking at buying Scottish Power, to take them to being the second largest supplier in the UK. There are however significant regulatory hurdles which did not exist with the previous two. The biggest barrier being the Monopolies and Mergers commision who will site that in Scotland real competition has not been allowed with a managed duopoly only being broken up six months ago. Furthermore, Scottish Power have significant generation and distribution assets and with E.On's penchant for distribution networks they will be close to Monopoly on this. The advantages too E.On are significant with massive growth in a market which is hithertoo untapped. Perhaps the next step is an RWE takeover for Scottish and Southern.