PARIS (Agefi-Dow Jones)–The President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, proposes the appointment of Luc Rémont to the post of Chairman and CEO of Electricité de France (EDF), the Elysée announced Thursday evening.
This appointment must be validated by the competent commissions of the National Assembly and the Senate, indicated the Presidency of the Republic, which did not specify on what date the new leader would take office.
The name of this polytechnician, who has been directing the international operations of the Schneider Electric group since 2014, has been circulating in the press for several weeks.
In recent months, the government has made no secret that it was looking for a successor to Jean-Bernard Lévy before the latter reaches the age limit in 2023. The current boss of the public electrician had been appointed to this post. in 2014. The Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, also suggested on Tuesday that the State could separate the functions of President and CEO of EDF, but this would require a change in the group’s statutes.
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Luc Rémont inherited many priority projects in the context of the energy crisis in Europe. The most urgent thing will be to complete the repair work on the nuclear reactors shut down at the start of the year due to a corrosion problem. About fifteen reactors are concerned, i.e. a quarter of the French nuclear fleet. “The teams from EDF and its partners are fully mobilized to put as many nuclear reactors back into service as possible for next winter,” Jean-Bernard Lévy said during a recent parliamentary hearing.
The commissioning of the Flamanville EPR, scheduled for the end of 2023, is another crucial meeting for the electrician, who is more than 10 years behind schedule on this project.
EDF must also get in working order with a view to the construction of six new EPRs by 2050 while continuing work aimed at extending the life of its existing fleet beyond 40 years, or even more than 50 years for certain power stations, in accordance with Emmanuel Macron’s announcements last February in Belfort.
All of these projects will take place under reinforced control by the State, which has announced the launch by mid-October of a simplified takeover bid for the group’s minority stakes, in order to increase 100% of the capital and delisting the company. This operation will cost around 9.7 billion euros to the State.
-Francois Schott, Agefi-Dow Jones; 01 41 27 47 92; [email protected] ed: LBO
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September 29, 2022 12:25 ET (16:25 GMT)