Paris Pushes Areva, EDF to Make Tie-up Proposal

By Inti Landauro 

PARIS--The French government has asked utility Électricité de France SA and beleaguered nuclear engineering firm Areva SA to make proposals for a tie-up to help rescue Areva from years of losses.

EDF and Areva, which are both state controlled, must make efforts to cooperate better over the construction of nuclear reactors and international business, French Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron said Thursday. He said he asked both companies to make proposals in the coming weeks.

"There are industrial and financial plans, but not for the whole of Areva, just the nuclear reactor part," Mr. Macron said on French television channel BFMTV.

Areva is working on a plan to sell assets, cut costs, reduce capital expenditure and start talks with unions over possible job cuts after posting a EUR4.8 billion ($5.4 billion) net loss in 2014, the company's fourth consecutive annual loss.

The company faces major hurdles with its contract to build a reactor in Finland, which has cost it billions of euros so far, a bad acquisition of a uranium mine, and a slowdown in the nuclear industry after the Fukushima disaster in 2011.

Mr. Macron recently said in an interview with Le Figaro that the partnership between Areva and EDF should be strengthened, possibly "going as far as a tie-up of capital."

Separately, Mr. Macron said he isn't opposed to the sale of a controlling stake in French video-streaming company Dailymotion to Hong Kong-based PCCW Ltd., but said he wants to be sure Orange SA, which controls the website, has looked at all potential buyers in Europe first.

Write to Inti Landauro at [e-mail]

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