EdF finalizes BE takeover
06 January 2009
Lake Acquisitions Ltd - a wholly-owned subsidiary of Electricité de France (EdF) - announced that EdF's offer to acquire British Energy (BE) was now wholly unconditional. It said that by 5 January it had received valid acceptances for the ordinary offer and the convertible offer in respect of a total of 1,550,102,522 BE shares, representing in aggregate some 96.44% of the current issued share capital of BE. At the end of December, EdF's offer for BE was approved by European authorities, but both parties will have to divest power stations, and more land must be sold for new nuclear build. EdF has already announced plans to construct up to four 1600 MWe EPR reactors at existing BE sites. However, in an interview with the Financial Times, EdF CEO Pierre Gadonneix said, "If we want to meet the 2017 challenge for the first EPR, we must find ways to make the process as fluent as possible ... That will take time and that will cost." He also said that EdF was open to other companies taking stakes in its new nuclear power plants in the UK, along the lines of Enel of Italy's 12.5% stake in the new Flamanville EPR under construction in France. EdF is in talks with Centrica, owner of British Gas, to take a 25% stake in BE and Centrica has issued shares to raise the necessary cash.