EDF-The board recommends the takeover offer filed by the State | Photo credits: EDF / MOURET THIERRY
PARIS, October 27 (Reuters) – EDF’s board of directors on Thursday recommended that shareholders and holders of the group’s convertible bonds (Oceanes) tender their shares to the offer filed by the French state to buy back the some 16% of the capital that it does not yet hold and thus proceed to a complete renationalisation of the company.
According to an EDF press release, the board notably judged, by a majority of the members who took part in the vote, that the State’s offer of 12.0 euros per share and 15.52 euros per Oceane allowed the minority shareholders to sell their shares at a price deemed fair by an independent expert.
In a document sent to the Autorit̩ des march̩s financiers (AMF), EDF also pointed out that the price proposed Рfor an operation of some 9.6 billion euros in total Рwould represent, according to the expert, a premium even in the hypothesis where a legal action brought by the company against the State should lead to compensation.
The group, in financial difficulty due in particular to the limitation of electricity prices, had announced earlier Thursday the filing of an appeal before the Administrative Court of Paris in order to obtain full compensation for damage, estimated at 8.3 billion euros, due to the increase in the volumes of nuclear electricity at the start of 2022, which it is forced to sell at low prices to its competitors.
Before being opened, the State’s takeover offer remains subject to a green light from the AMF, which should take place on November 8, according to an indicative timetable provided by the State in early October. She should then run from November 10 to December 8. (Report Benjamin Mallet, edited by Bertrand Boucey)