Vattenfall agrees to sell German power grid-sources

FRANKFURT, March 11 (Reuters) - Vattenfall [VATN.UL], operator of Germany's fourth-largest utility, has agreed to sell its German high-voltage grid to Belgian peer Elia (ELI.BR) and Industry Funds Management, two people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

The sale gives the Vatenfall power grid in eastern Germany an enterprise value -- the value of the asset plus its debt -- of around 800 million euros ($1.09 billion), the sources said on Thursday.

The sale -- coming after E.ON (EONGn.DE) sold its German power grid in November -- marks a fundamental change to the German economy. The grids are the backbone of the power market to ship electricity to distributors and large users.

All German long-distance grids had been operated by the utilities that run the power plants in the respective region -- ensuring German users have fewer blackouts than any other users in Europe -- until E.ON sold its high-voltage grid last year.

With the sale of Vattenfall's grid, the responsibility to keep the power market functioning in half of the country lies in the hands of independent operators.

Vatenfall declined to comment. (Reporting by Peter Dinkloh and Philipp Halstrick in Frankfurt, Markus Wacket in Berlin; Writing by Peter Dinkloh)