Related News:
Areva, EDF Need to `Get Along' to Foster Nuclear Exports, Lagarde Says
Areva SA and Electricite de France SA must cooperate to win contracts to build nuclear reactors abroad, according to French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde.
“Our two big nuclear champions must imperatively get along,” Lagarde said today in an interview on RTL radio following the publication of a report yesterday on France’s nuclear industry and government plans to sell shares in Areva.
“There must be a strategic partnership between Areva and EDF each time that it’s necessary for exports,” Lagarde said, calling for EDF to be the “leader” as the operator of France’s 58 nuclear reactors.
Areva, the world’s largest maker of nuclear reactors, will sell a maximum 15 percent in new shares this year to improve finances and sign a partnership with EDF, the government said yesterday. Investors will be both industrial and financial and may also include EDF, which holds 2.5 percent. About 4 percent of Areva trades in Paris as non-voting investment certificates.
The share sale will be open to partners Areva “has been working for a long time” with, Lagarde said, citing Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. and wealth funds of Kuwait and Qatar. “If EDF also wants to there is no reason to keep them out.”
The report by Francois Roussely, a former EDF chief executive officer and now an investment banker at Credit Suisse Group AG, highlighted some of the obstacles faced by the French nuclear industry in winning contracts abroad.
Areva and EDF should modify the design of the new- generation EPR reactor and add smaller models to win contracts, according to the recommendations of the report. The reactor’s “complexity” is “a handicap” for its development and cost and may explain the difficulties the companies are facing in developing models in Finland and France, the report said.
The report was commissioned by President Nicolas Sarkozy, who received it in May.
A group of French companies lost a joint bid for a $20 billion contract in the United Arab Emirates in December, sparking criticism from Sarkozy that the companies were engaged in “counter-productive” competition.
To contact the reporter on this story: Tara Patel in Paris at tpatel2@bloomberg.net
Rate These Stories
Rate this Page