Acquisition

Scottish & Southern Energy PLC
03 March 2008


                        SCOTTISH AND SOUTHERN ENERGY PLC

                    ACQUISITION OF STREET LIGHTING BUSINESS



Scottish and Southern Energy plc ('SSE') has entered into an agreement with EDF
Energy to acquire Seeboard Trading Limited, which finances and operates street
lighting replacement and maintenance projects for three local authorities in the
south of England under the Private Finance Initiative (PFI). The total cash
consideration is £7.8m.


The three local authorities are the London Borough of Islington, the London
Borough of Ealing and Dorset County Council. The projects cover around 90,000
street lighting columns and they all have at least 20 years to run.


Through its subsidiary, Southern Electric Contracting, and in partnership with
the asset finance division of The Royal Bank of Scotland, SSE already has PFI
contracts to replace and maintain around 210,000 street lighting columns for
four local authorities in England: Stoke on Trent City Council; Leeds City
Council; Newcastle City Council and North Tyneside Council. These contracts all
have over 20 years to run.


In addition to the PFI replacement and maintenance contracts, SSE has contracts
with 22 local authorities in England, Wales and Scotland to maintain over one
million street lights. This includes a contract with St Helens Council, which
was recently signed and which is SSE's first in the north west of England. It is
now the largest street lighting contractor in the UK.


Around 70 employees will transfer to SSE as a result of the acquisition.


Colin Hood, Chief Operating Officer of SSE, said:


'This is a very good acquisition, which reinforces our position as the UK's
leading street lighting contractor. Additional street lighting PFI contracts are
now unlikely to be awarded before 2010, and so this is a unique opportunity to
build further our presence in this increasingly important sector.


'The PFI approach has emerged as an excellent way of replacing ageing street
lighting infrastructure. Our existing PFI projects have been successful and have
delivered real benefits to communities. We will now ensure that best practice
applies across our enlarged group of contracts, so that local authorities and
local residents benefit from the successful delivery of our approach.'


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