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EDF today played down reports that it is set to sell another major stake in British Energy, the nuclear power stations company.
The French-state-controlled power giant bought British Energy in a £12.5 billion deal last year. In a pre-arranged side deal it sold on 20% of the nuclear group with the British Gas combine Centrica for a knockdown £2.3 billion after months of tough negotiations.
Now, according to reports in Paris, cash-strapped EDF is aiming to sell a further 20% of British Energy.
La Tribune reports today that EDF has added a stake in British Energy to the list of assets it could sell as it aims to raise €5 billion.
A spokesman for EDF said: "This is not on the agenda at this stage."
EDF is widely thought to have over-extended itself by buying British Energy at the same time that it spent £3 billion on the acquisition of half of US nuclear group Constellation Energy. EDF is reckoned to be already in advanced talks to sell the lines and wires of its London, south-east and East Anglia electricity distribution company in a deal which could raise as much as £3 billion.
Separately, it emerged over the weekend that an acolyte of French president Nicolas Sarkozy could take over as the head of EDF. Henri Proglio, head of the waste and water group Veolia, has emerged as front-runner to take over at the company, which remains 82% controlled by the French government.
Sunday newspaper reports indicate Proglio is being readied to take over from Pierre Gadonneix, 66, by the end of the year, a politically sensitive appointment because of the near-monopoly that EDF's nuclear power stations have in France's electricity market.
Reader views (1)
If they don't want it it should be given back to the state at no cost.
It is a privildge, that EDF do not desrve, to be able to milk the British public for vasts amounts of income that bear no relation to the aggrigated real cost of energy supply.
- James, City of London
