(Boursier.com) — EDF increased its gains at the end of the morning, with a title which won 5.8% to 9.6 euros, still supported by the prospect of an upcoming exit from the rating. Elisabeth Borne indeed confirmed Wednesday before the parliament that the electricity producer was going to be nationalized in order to ensure “our sovereignty in the face of the consequences of the war and the colossal challenges to come”. If the Prime Minister did not provide precise details on the nationalization of EDF, already 84% owned by the State, Bruno Le Maire indicated yesterday that the operation will take place over several months, and that certain details could be revealed in the coming days.
The amending finance bill presented on Thursday also shows that the government has decided to increase by 12.7 billion euros the budget available to finance operations related to its equity portfolio in the second half of 2022. The Minister of Finance specified yesterday that these 12.7 MdsE would not only cover the nationalization of EDF.
In the meantime, the market is betting that Bercy will pay a premium to buy back the shares it does not yet hold. “It is expected that the state can be a little generous in buying out the minority shareholders given the current share price,” Eric Hassid, trader at Aurel BGC, told ‘Bloomberg’. Citi (‘buy’/high risk) considers a nationalization via a takeover bid with a premium as the most probable scenario while Oddo BHF considers that two options for a delisting are still possible.
The first is to obtain 90% of the shares to trigger a mandatory delisting, since the French state already owns 84% of the shares. A premium will then be needed to convince 1/3 of the remaining float to sell its shares. However, it will take a bit of time since different steps are needed before getting all the actions. This option can be triggered at any time and could have been triggered several months ago. As for the second option, it would consist in passing a law of nationalization. It would then be necessary to convince the members of parliament of the legitimacy of this political decision.
©2022 Boursier.com