PARIS--The French government has suggested that Areva SA, the
unprofitable state-controlled nuclear engineering group, sell its
reactors unit to power utility Electricité de France SA in a
shake-up of France's nuclear industry.
Areva Chief Executive Phiippe Knoche informed labor
representatives that the company's principal shareholder was
studying the partial or total sale of Areva NP, said Jean-Pierre
Bachmann, a representative of the CFDT union who attended the
meeting. Areva NP manufactures, installs and services nuclear
reactors.
Mr. Knoche told that meeting that other options were also under
discussion, an Areva spokesman said Friday.
The government proposal is the latest in a long-standing but
inconclusive struggle to keep France's nuclear sector afloat after
bad investment decisions and changing international attitudes
toward nuclear power, notably after the Fukushima disaster in Japan
in 2011, have pushed Areva deep in the red.
The meeting between Mr. Knoche and the unions was held after
French Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron said he was asking EDF--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.
A solution will be found for Areva by the end of the month, a
spokeswoman for Mr. Macron said Friday.
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.
EDF declined to comment.
Areva is in difficulty 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 a contract to build a
reactor in Finland, which has cost it billions of euros instead of
generating profits, the acquisition of a uranium mine that turned
sour, and a slowdown in the nuclear industry after the Fukushima
disaster.
Areva is currently working on a plan to sell assets, cut costs,
reduce capital expenditure and start talks with unions over
possible job cuts.
The unions oppose the sale of the nuclear reactor business,
which represented almost 40% of its overall revenues in 2014.
"Areva would be left without its core business, it wouldn't be
able to make reactors or even design them," Mr. Bachmann said.
"Additionally, the company provides equipment and services to some
EDF's competitors, how would that be possible after a sale?"
Unions would oppose the plan and propose an alternative, he
said.
Beside designing, making and servicing nuclear reactors, Areva
also owns uranium mines, facilities manufacturing nuclear fuel and
treating nuclear waste, and makes equipment for renewable energy
generation.
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