The French government would like to nationalize the energy giant Edf (present in Italy with Edison’s control) and on the Paris Stock Exchange the investors take note: the stock goes up to + 5% in the morning, against weak prices.
To report the intentions of Paris is The echoes, according to which “the return of EDF to 100% in the hands of the state is one of the priority projects of the new government that must be started after the legislative elections, alongside the fight against inflation and pension reform”. A source in the newspaper said: “‘We would do well to do it as quickly as possible”.
The EDF reform, currently 84% controlled by the French state, postponed several times during the previous five-year period “today appears inevitable”, writes the newspaper. The “French champion of the atom is faring worse and worse due to the historical weakness of the availability of its reactor fleet”, with repercussions on its debt, which is already heavy. The war in Ukraine, moreover, has put the pressing need for “abundant, affordable and sovereign energy” in the spotlight. For the French government, “the 100% alternative in public hands offers numerous advantages”, he argues again The echoes.
The operation could be associated with a capital increase and would obviously have the final result of the delisting of the group. From a political point of view, a nationalization would make it possible to relaunch EDF’s highly controversial reform in a more favorable light, “because both on the left and on the right, it is believed that nuclear power must be in the hands of the state”. For the EDF unions, it is an essential symbol, because nationalization would bring the group back to its origins, notes an administration source. From a financial point of view, the advantages of a return fully to state hands would be a lower financing cost, in a more favorable negotiating position with Brussels on the reform of the regulated price of nuclear electricity and again in relation to the financing of the new reactors. of the latest generation, emphasizes the newspaper. Furthermore, with the exit of the minority shareholders from the capital, the government would have its hands free to decide on new measures, potentially very unfavorable to EDF, designed to contain the flare-up in prices.
In 2021 the group achieved revenues of 84.5 billion euros, with a net profit of 5.1 billion. Debt amounts to 43 billion. In April it concluded a 3.1 billion euro capital increase, subscribed for 2.7 billion by the state.