Is the third time the charm for Gas Natural? The natural gas company, based in Barcelona, said in a regulatory filing Thursday that it was competing to buy a controlling stake in a rival utility, Unión Fenosa, based in Madrid, its third attempt to acquire another Spanish energy company. If successful, the move could lead to the creation of a domestic energy champion and head off would-be foreign acquirers. That is something likely to please the administration of the Socialist prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, who has supported such Spanish consolidation and has been chided by the European Commission for doing so. Analysts have said that if Gas Natural were to purchase Fenosa that could be the precursor to an eventual three-way merger between Gas Natural, Fenosa and the utility Iberdrola, based in Bilbao, Spain....
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