The French authorities are planning to send a public offer to buy back shares of the energy company Electricite de France SA (EDF) at a price of 12 euros per share, thus spending about 9.7 billion euros on the company’s nationalization.
The offer will be sent for approval by regulators in early September, Dow Jones quotes a message from the French Ministry of Finance. The buyback price is almost one and a half times higher than the quotes at the close of trading on July 4 (8.48 euros), that is, in the last session before the plans for the nationalization of EDF became known.
The government currently owns about 84% of EDF’s share capital. After the repurchase of the remaining 16% of the shares from shareholders, the authorities plan to delist the company.
EDF, in particular, is the operator of French nuclear power plants, but the company’s production volumes have recently declined amid problems associated with equipment obsolescence. At the same time, the authorities are looking for ways to reduce the share of nuclear energy in the country in favor of alternative energy sources.
Shares of EDF jumped 15% in trading on Tuesday, to 11.77 euros per share.