The announcement had been expected for several days. On Thursday, February 10, Electricité de France (EDF) and General Electric (GE) announced in a joint communiqué the proposed acquisition by the French electricity company of part of GE Steam Power’s nuclear business.
This announcement coincides with the visit of President Emmanuel Macron to Belfort, on the very site of manufacture of the Arabelle turbines equipping French nuclear power plants, sold in 2015 to the American General Electric when he was minister of the economy. This choice to sell Alstom’s energy arm to GE has been regularly criticized, in particular due to the announcement that GE will cut more than a thousand jobs in 2019.
175 million euros
According to a source close to the matter, EDF will pay regarding 200 million dollars (175 million euros) for this transaction, once the cash and debts of the repurchased business are taken into account. The business that will be acquired by EDF is valued at 1.2 billion dollars (1 billion euros), due to a large cash flow.
The proposed operation involves “GE Steam Power’s conventional island equipment for new nuclear power plants, including Arabelle turbines – the most powerful in the world – as well as on the maintenance and upgrades of existing nuclear power plants “, detail both groups.
These steam turbines are a strategic asset for the nuclear industry. GE claims half of the global market once morest competitors like Mitsubishi or Siemens. In particular, they will be able to equip the EPR and EPR2 technology reactors as well as the SMR (Small Modular Reactor), it is specified in the press release.
The EPR, which will be at the heart of Emmanuel Macron’s announcements in Belfort on Thursday, have nevertheless multiplied the troubles. At the beginning of January, EDF announced once once more a delay on the construction of the first French EPR, that of Flamanville, launched in 2006. This EPR, supposed to be connected to the network in 2012, was supposed to cost 3.3 billion euros. It should finally start in the second quarter of 2023, eleven years behind the original schedule and cost, according to EDF, 12.4 billion euros. The Court of Auditors, on the other hand, estimates that the total bill would rather be 19.1 billion euros.
70% of activity in France
The nuclear activities and the teams involved in the planned operation are located at “almost 70% in France, especially on industrial sites such as Belfort and La Courneuve”, and concern a total of fifteen countries.
This acquisition project “will enable EDF to further strengthen its mastery of key technologies and skills for the operating fleet and for new nuclear reactor projects in France and beyond”, commented the chairman and CEO of EDF Jean-Bernard Lévy, quoted in the statement.
On the GE side, the group would continue to provide its services “for more than 100 GW of nuclear turbine islands on its American market” and would retain GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy, “a leading supplier in the field of reactor life cycle, which will deploy the first commercial, grid-connected SMR in Canada”.
“Nuclear energy also has an important role to play in the energy transition and GE will continue to support this industry”, said, for its part, its president and CEO, Larry Culp, also quoted.
