Equinor Keeps Options Open for Orsted Stake

Equinor keeps options open for Orsted stake

OSLO (Reuters) -Equinor believes in offshore wind farm developer Orsted's core business but is not at a stage where the two will merge their renewables businesses, the Norwegian group's board chair said on Wednesday.

Oil group Equinor holds a 10% stake in Orsted and has said it will take part in the Danish group's emergency rights issue designed to fund U.S. projects thrown into uncertainty by President Donald Trump's opposition to wind farms.

"We are convinced that there is a robust value case here, and that's what we're looking for," Equinor Chair Jon Erik Reinhardsen said on the sidelines of an energy conference in Oslo.

"We have open minds in terms of what it leads to," he said when asked if the Equinor may raise its stake in Orsted.

Some analysts have said Equinor would be open to spinning off its own renewables unit and merge it with Orsted.

"It might be one of many options, but again, we are not at that stage at the moment, that we are sitting and ranking options," Reinhardsen said.

Orsted's shares traded up 2.9% at 1208 GMT.

(Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis, writing by Anna Ringstrom and Stine Jacobsen, editing by Terje Solsvik)