The state will pass the 90% threshold of EDF, which is a crucial step for renationalisation.

A turning point, but not the end of the series: the French state crossed the threshold of 90% of EDF’s capital on Friday, January 20. This is a crucial step in the implementation of the public procurement tender (OPA), which aims to re-nationalize the electricity giant in order to revive it, but whose outcome still depends on the court’s decision.

“On January 19, 2023, the state overcame 90.00% of EDF’s capital and theoretical voting rights.”– it is stated in the press release of the Ministry of Economy published on Friday. The operation, worth 9.7 billion euros, is strategic for the state, which wants to build six new-generation EPR nuclear reactors, with eight other options.

On the stock exchange, this is a crucial step taken by the government in the context of its takeover bid (OPA), which has been delayed indefinitely due to legal action.minority shareholders. From now on, at the end of the offer, it will be able to initiate a mandatory delisting of EDF shares from the Paris stock exchange, ie forcing the remaining minority shareholders to sell their shares, as they now represent less than 10% of the capital. and the right to vote.

Disgruntled shareholders

However, the renationalization, which was decided last summer when the state held 84% of the capital, has not yet been completed and appears to have been delayed significantly. The takeover bid, which opened on November 24, was supposed to end on December 22. But the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) decided on December 7 to postpone this deadline. “The Paris Court of Appeal’s decision on the suspension request is pending” Submitted by a group of minority shareholders dissatisfied with the proposed price.

“We see that the situation will become tense when it will be enough to reach an agreement on a price increase acceptable to all parties, so that the appeals are stopped and the operations are carried out successfully.”says Martin Faure, the leader of the rebel small carriers at the forefront of many of the lawsuits filed over the past several months.

These small shareholders are mainly EDF employees or former retired employees for whom the buyout price, currently set by the state at €12 per share, is insufficient. That price was confirmed by an independent expert’s report, but small shareholders believe the company is undervalued and that it has been unfairly penalized in its revenues by Arenh, a state-imposed mechanism that forces it to sell electricity at low prices. to alternative suppliers.

The stock market watchdog allowed the takeover bid to begin on November 22, specifically based on this report. But an appeal to overturn that decision was filed on December 2 at the Paris Court of Appeal, accompanied by a request for a stay of execution.

A project worth several tens of billions of euros

A hearing on this stay is scheduled for January 25. Another hearing on the merits is scheduled for March 23, in the Chamber of Economic and Financial Regulation of the Court of Appeal. “We are on a buyout proposition that works overall. The impact will be relatively minimal. “Nevertheless, Agence France-Presse spoke with Alexandre Malric, director of energy at CGI Business Consulting.

Arenh, which was created to promote competition between electricity suppliers, is regularly condemned by EDF as “poison” straining his finances. The government is working on another device to replace this mechanism, which will expire on December 31, 2025.

More broadly, the question remains unanswered as to how the state, when it is the sole master of the company, is going to allow EDF to build six new generation EPR nuclear reactors, along with eight other nuclear reactors. This project will cost tens and tens of billions of euros, and EDF’s finances are burdened by a record debt approaching 60 billion.