AMERICA’S largest wholesale energy trader has made a £1.9 billion offer for Drax, just weeks before the North Yorkshire power station’s planned flotation.

The offer from Constellation Energy and Perry Capital comes as takeover activity lights up the energy sector and power prices surge to new highs. It also comes just days before Drax Power, owner of the Selby station, was due to send documents to creditors about its proposed listing and refinancing.

Drax Power said that it would consider the bid but pointed out that at £1.9 billion the offer was below the enterprise value of the company as implied by current trading of its A2 and A3 bonds.

Drax, Europe’s biggest power station, which has an output of 4,000MW, or 7 per cent of the UK’s electricity, said that it would continue with its refinancing and listing plans.

The station, which was on the verge of administration three years ago when power prices in the UK crashed to record lows, is mostly owned by its banks after the previous owner, AES, the American power company, sold out in 2003.

At the time, the power station was pursued by a number of companies including International Power, the power station owner; Goldman Sachs, the investment bank, and BHP Billiton, the global mining group.

Despite its debts, Drax was sought-after because it is one of the cleanest coal-fired stations in Europe and does not require further investment to comply with 2008 laws that aim to reduce damaging emissions.

Constellation, which supplies coal to Drax, is worth more than $10 billion (£5.5 billion) and is a leading supplier of electricity to business and industry in the United States. It owns plants in America that can generate 12,000MW of electricity.

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