EDF considers selling the US renewable unit in full to concentrate on French nuclear

EDF, the French state-owned utility, is looking at selling all of its U.S. Renewable Energy business, according to its CEO on Wednesday. The company has a focus on developing its nuclear operations in France, while U.S. wind and solar support has been reduced. Bernard Fontana, who spoke on the sidelines at the Adopt AI Conference in Paris, said that the company was considering selling between 50% and 100% of its U.S. Renewable unit. This is a revision of an earlier plan of only selling a minority stake. Bloomberg reported that a stake less than 50% would be worth around 2 billion euros. Fontana became CEO of EDF in April, amid frustration from the government over delays to upgrade France's nuclear fleet. He prioritizes investments that will strengthen energy security. EDF is looking to raise money to build six new reactors and said that it was considering asset sales to reduce its 50 billion euro net debt.

France's nuclear fleet is responsible for 70% of the country's electricity production. This has pushed the power prices in France below those of its neighbours Germany and Britain, which rely heavily upon gas-fired plants.

Two sources familiar with the discussions say that EDF appointed Nomura as its investment bank to find buyers for a 49% stake in EDF earlier this year. Nomura declined comment. Nomura declined to comment.

EDF's site states that the company has completed 23 gigawatts in projects, and 16 gigawatts are under service contracts. Recently, other European companies have sold their renewable portfolios to the U.S. Ares Management bought a 49% share of EDPR’s 1.6 GW solar, wind, and storage assets for $2.9 billion in October.

(source: Reuters)