PARIS--The French government has turned up the heat on the
managers of the country's biggest nuclear-power companies to
restructure the industry to help stem multibillion-euro losses at
state-controlled equipment maker Areva SA.
Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron has asked Eléctricité de France
SA--the operator of France's fleet of nuclear power stations which
provide most of the country's electricity--to come to the rescue of
Areva by deepening their industrial and possibly financial
ties.
EDF and Areva, which are both majority-owned by the French
state, have to cooperate better over the construction of nuclear
reactors and tendering for international business, Mr. Macron said
on Thursday. He said that he has asked both companies to make
proposals in the coming weeks.
The plea falls short of calling for a full-scale merger of the
two companies.
"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 BFM-TV. As well as making nuclear reactors,
Areva mines uranium, produces nuclear fuel, and treats nuclear
waste.
The initiative from the government is just the latest in a
long-standing but inconclusive struggle to reorganize France's
nuclear sector. Previous ideas ranged from the fully-fledged
privatization of Areva to allowing gas utility GDF Suez to compete
with EDF as a nuclear-energy provider. Changing international
attitudes to nuclear power, notably after the Fukushima disaster in
Japan in 2011, have complicated the task for the French government
by crimping demand for new business at Areva.
France's nuclear-energy companies have also had a poor export
record. In 2009, a consortium made up of Areva, GDF Suez, and
French oil group Total, joined at the last minute by EDF, lost out
to a South Korean bid led by Korea Electric Power Co. to build a
new power station in the United Arab Emirates.
For now, 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 fourth loss in as many years.
The company faces major hurdles with its contract to build a
reactor in Finland, which has suffered a series of delays and cost
overruns, and has also made a poor investment in uranium
mining,
Mr. Macron recently said in an interview with French newspaper
Le Figaro that the partnership between Areva and EDF should be
strengthened, possibly "going as far as a tie-up of capital."
Write to Inti Landauro at inti.landauro@wsj.com
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires