Thousands of workers at one of Sussex's biggest companies are concerned for their futures after the firm was sold off.

Energy supplier Seeboard, which employs about 4,000 people, has been bought for £1.39 billion, it was announced last night.

American Electric Power, the US owner of the Crawley-based Seeboard group, is selling the business to London Electricity (LE), which is owned by a French firm.

An LE spokesman said it was too early to know whether there would be any job losses but added: "Of course there will be changes, we accept that, but the next step is to get regulatory clearance."

The sale will go to the Office of Fair Trade and the European Competition Panel before being finalised.

But employees were reeling from the news after the sell-off was announced.

They each received emails saying savings would be needed and the "economy of scale" would be examined.

Mark Turner, union official for the GMB union, which represents staff at Seeboard, said: "Economy of scale basically means they will make savings where they can."

Staff at Seeboard's call centres in Portland Road, Hove, and Worthing are concerned their jobs could be lost to employees in London.

Seeboard sells electricity and gas to about 1.9 million customers in the UK, the majority of which are in Kent, Sussex and Surrey.

Mr Turner said: "It will be about four to six weeks before staff find out how they will combine the two operations. People are not stupid - there will be job losses - but what that will entail nobody knows."