Gas Natural
In September 2005, Barcelona-based Gas Natural made a bid for Endesa, whose board unanimously immediately rejected a €23 billion (£16 billion) offer. On January 5, 2006, the "Tribunal de Defensa de la Competencia" (Competition Court, TDC) blocked the merger of "Gas Natural" and Endesa because of what it claimed would be irreversible negative impacts on competition. For most of 2006 and 2007, Endesa was the target of rival takeover bids by Germany's E.On and the Italian firm Enel. Despite Gas Natural being half the size of Endesa, its bid was championed by the then-Socialist government as an all-Spanish deal, but Gas Natural decided to withdraw its bid after the German firm E.On offered a higher bid for the company. The opposition People's Party of the day, and some Madrid politicians, criticised the bid, alleging political interference by the Socialists and a Catalan nationalist plot to control energy supply respectively.