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EDF Employees Lose Bid to Thwart Buyout Offer in Paris Court

Employee shareholders are challenging the state’s plan to eventually delist EDF.

Employee shareholders are challenging the state’s plan to eventually delist EDF.

Photographer: Theo Giacometti/Bloomberg

The French government’s €‎9.7 billion ($10.3 billion) tender offer to take Electricite de France SA back into full state ownership overcame one of several legal hurdles after a Paris court rejected a challenge from the utility’s employee shareholders. 

The Paris commercial court on Friday rejected a demand from the FCPE Actions EDF fund and the Energie en Actions association of shareholders to cancel EDF’s board’s decision to back the government offer, according to Martine Faure, President of the FCPE fund that manages EDF shares of employees. A representative for EDF confirmed the court ruling.