Shares in debt-laden EDF were suspended on Wednesday as the French government prepares to detail its plans to fully nationalise Europe’s biggest nuclear power operator.
France said last week it wanted to fully nationalise EDF, in which the state already holds an 84 per cent stake, without explaining how it would do so. In a statement, the finance ministry said it would clarify its plans before the market opens on July 19th at the latest.
Taking EDF back under full state control would give the government greater licence to restructure the group that runs the nation's nuclear power plants, as it contends with a European energy crisis.
A finance ministry source said the suspension of EDF shares, which was requested by the company, was temporary and trading would resume once the government had made clear how it would fully nationalise the utility.
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EDF has been grappling with extraordinary outages at its nuclear fleet, delays and cost overruns in building new reactors, and power tariff caps imposed by the government to shield French consumers from soaring electricity prices.
Two sources told Reuters this week that the French government was poised to pay up to €10 billion to buy the 16 per cent stake in the group it does not already own, after including the purchase of convertible bonds and a premium it is expected to offer to minority shareholders.
That would translate into a buyout price of close to €13 per share, a 30 per cent premium to current market prices but still a big loss for long-term shareholders, as the group was listed in 2005 at a price of €33 per share.
“A 30 per cent premium does not seem unreasonable given the market fluctuations of the share price — we are still talking about a 50 per cent to 60 per cent loss for shareholders,” said Antoine Fraysse-Soulier, head of market analysis at eToro in Paris.
— Reuters
