EDF shares suspended as France prepares nationalisation plan

EDF shares suspended as France prepares nationalisation plan

View of the company logo of Electricite de France (EDF) on the facade of EDF’s headquarters in Paris, France, July 7, 2022. REUTERS/Johanna GeronRegister now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comRegister

  • French government aiming to fully nationalise EDF
  • State already holds an 84% stake in the group
  • Utility grappling with outages and tariff caps

PARIS, July 13 (Reuters) – Shares in debt-laden EDF (EDF.PA) were suspended on Wednesday as the French government prepares to detail its plans to fully nationalise Europe’s biggest nuclear power operator.France said last week it wanted to fully nationalise EDF, in which the state already holds an 84% stake, without explaining how it would do so. In a statement, the finance ministry said it would clarify its plans before the market opens on July 19 at the latest.Taking EDF back under full state control would give the government greater licence to restructure the group that runs the nation’s nuclear power plants, as it contends with a European energy crisis.Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comRegisterA finance ministry source said the suspension of EDF shares, which was requested by the company, was temporary and trading would resume once the government had made clear how it would fully nationalise the utility.EDF has been grappling with extraordinary outages at its nuclear fleet, delays and cost overruns in building new reactors, and power tariff caps imposed by the government to shield French consumers from soaring electricity prices.Two sources told Reuters this week that the government was poised to pay up to 10 billion euros to buy the 16% stake in the group it does not already own, after including the purchase of convertible bonds and a premium it is expected to offer to minority shareholders. read more That would translate into a buyout price of close to 13 euros per share, a 30% premium to current market prices but still a big loss for long-term shareholders, as the group was listed in 2005 at a price of 33 euros per share.”A 30% premium does not seem unreasonable given the market fluctuations of the share price – we are still talking about a 50% to 60% loss for shareholders,” said Antoine Fraysse-Soulier, head of market analysis at eToro in Paris.The sources said the state wanted to move quickly and would probably launch a voluntary offer on the market rather than push a nationalisation bill through parliament, with the aim of closing the operation in October-November.”The government may want to offer a sufficient premium to avoid legal challenges and resulting delays to the offer,” JPMorgan analysts said in a note.EDF did not give a reason for requesting the suspension of its shares, which have risen 30% since the nationalisation announcement, increasing the cost of buying out minorities. The finance ministry source said the move was “among routine tools to manage financial markets in this kind of situation”.”I would imagine it is to stop the price going up to a point that the French government ends up having to pay over the odds for the remaining shares in issue,” a London trader said.The shares closed at 10.2250 euros on Tuesday.In a sign of how badly reactor outages are affecting the company, which is expected to post a loss this year, EDF said power generation at its French nuclear reactors fell by 27.1% in June from a year earlier after the discovery of stress corrosion took several sites off line.EDF has said it expects an 18.5 billion euro hit to its earnings in 2022 from production losses, and further losses of 10.2 billion euros from the energy price cap.($1 = 0.9964 euros)Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comRegisterAdditional reporting by Joice Alves in London and Marc Angrand in Paris; Writing by Silvia Aloisi; Editing by Edmund Blair, Jan Harvey, Kirsten DonovanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. .

Siemens Energy launches $4.3 billion bid for remaining Siemens Gamesa stake

Siemens Energy launches $4.3 billion bid for remaining Siemens Gamesa stake

A model of a wind turbine with the Siemens Gamesa logo is displayed outside the annual general shareholders meeting in Zamudio, Spain, June 20, 2017. REUTERS/Vincent WestRegister now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comRegister

  • Siemens Energy bids 18.05 euros/share for 33% stake
  • Bid comes after operational problems at Siemens Gamesa
  • Deal could yield cost synergies of up to 300 mln eur

FRANKFURT, May 21 (Reuters) – Siemens Energy (ENR1n.DE) on Saturday launched a 4.05 billion euro ($4.28 billion) bid for the remaining shares in struggling wind turbine unit Siemens Gamesa (SGREN.MC), hoping to remove a complex ownership structure that has weighed on its shares.Siemens Energy said the 18.05 euros per share bid constitutes a premium of 27.7% over the last unaffected closing share price of Spanish-listed Siemens Gamesa of 14.13 euros on May 17. It is a 7.8% premium to Friday’s closing price.Siemens Energy has faced mounting shareholder pressure to seek control of Siemens Gamesa (SGRE), in which it owns 67%, a stake it inherited as part of a spin-off from former parent Siemens (SIEGn.DE).Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comRegisterThat stake has given Siemens Energy little influence to deal with product delays and operational problems at Siemens Gamesa. The group has issued three profit warnings in less than a year.”It is critical that the deteriorating situation at SGRE is being stopped as soon as possible, and the value-creating repositioning starts quickly,” said Joe Kaeser, Siemens Energy’s supervisory board chairman.This year, sources told Reuters that Siemens Energy was exploring options to acquire the remaining stake in Siemens Gamesa and a deal could materialise by summer. read more Siemens Energy said it plans to finance up to 2.5 billion euros of the transaction with equity or equity-like instruments, adding a first step could be a capital increase without subscription rights.The remainder would be financed with debt as well as cash on hand, Siemens Energy said, adding it aimed to delist Siemens Gamesa. Spanish stock market regulations allow that once ownership of 75% is reached.Full integration of Siemens Gamesa will simplify Siemens Energy’s structure and provide a more coherent business model that caters to legacy energy assets like coal, transition technologies such as gas, and renewable power sources.”This transaction comes at a time of major changes affecting global energy,” Siemens Energy Chief Executive Christian Bruch said. “Our conviction is that the current geopolitical developments will not lead to a setback to the energy transition.”Siemens Energy said the deal would lead to cost synergies of up to 300 million euros annually within three years of the full integration, mainly due to more favourable supply chain management, combined administration and joint R&D.The deal should close in the second half and is expected to achieve revenue synergies of a mid triple-digit million amount by 2030, the group said.($1 = 0.9470 euros)Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comRegisterReporting by Christoph Steitz and Ludwig Burger; Editing by Nick Zieminski, Daniel Wallis and David GregorioOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. .

Asia Fuel Oil VLSFO cash premiums gain, HSFO cash premiums hit multi-month highs

Asia Fuel Oil VLSFO cash premiums gain, HSFO cash premiums hit multi-month highs

SINGAPORE, March 8 (Reuters) – Asia’s cash premiums for 0.5% very low-sulphur fuel oil (VLSFO) rose for a second consecutive session on Tuesday, while the prompt-month spread for the marine fuel grade remained in steep backwardation.Cash differentials for Asia’s 0.5% VLSFO , which have surged about 44% in the last month, were at a premium of $19.80 a tonne to Singapore quotes, compared with $19.67 per tonne a day earlier.The March/April VLSFO time spread traded at $32 a tonne on Tuesday, compared with $33.75 a tonne on Monday.Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comRegisterThe front-month VLSFO crack rose to $29.83 per barrel against Dubai crude during Asian trading hours, up from $29.61 per barrel in the previous session.Meanwhile, the 380-cst HSFO barge crack for April traded at a discount of $16.79 barrel to Brent on Tuesday, while cash premiums for 380-cst high sulphur fuel oil (HSFO) rose to a more than four-month high of $5.55 per tonne to Singapore quotes.Backed by firmer deals in the physical market, the cash differentials for 180-cst HSFO surged to a premium of $8.59 a tonne to Singapore quotes, a level not seen since October last year. They were at a premium of $6.39 per tonne a day earlier.ASIA REFINERS TO CRANK UP RUNS- Some Asian refineries plan to increase output in May to cash in on high prices for gasoil exports to Europe, even as the steepest crude prices in 14 years threaten profit margins, numerous trade sources said. read more – European diesel supplies have shrunk following the disruption of western sanctions imposed on Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine, which it describes as a “special operation”.- Strong European demand has boosted Asian refiners’ profits for producing gasoil for exports to the West. However, the refiners are also paying record premiums for Middle East crude supplies after the disruption of sanctions left buyers with limited options.WINDOW TRADES- One 380-cst high-sulphur fuel oil (HSFO) deal, two 180-cst HSFO trades- One VLSFO trade was reportedOTHER NEWS- The United States is willing to move ahead with a ban on Russian oil imports without the participation of allies in Europe, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters, in light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. read more – Oil prices rose on Tuesday, with Brent surging past $126 a barrel, as fears of formal sanctions against Russian oil and fuel exports spurred concerns about supply availability.ASSESSMENTSRegister now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comRegisterReporting by Koustav Samanta; Editing by Shinjini GanguliOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. .

Australia’s AGL Energy rebuffs sweetened $4 bln bid from Brookfield-led team

Australia’s AGL Energy rebuffs sweetened $4 bln bid from Brookfield-led team

AGL Energy’s Liddell coal-fired power station is pictured in the Hunter Valley, north of Sydney, Australia, April 9, 2017. REUTERS/Jason ReedRegister now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comRegister

  • New offer pitched at 15% premium to pre-bid price
  • AGL says demerger offers better value to shareholders
  • AGL shares slip but hold above pre-bid price

MELBOURNE, March 7 (Reuters) – Australia’s AGL Energy confirmed on Monday it rejected a sweetened A$5.4 billion ($4.0 billion) takeover proposal from tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes and Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management (BAMa.TO), saying it still undervalued Australia’s top power producer.Brookfield and Cannon-Brookes said they had walked away, leaving AGL to pursue plans to split its coal-fired power business from its energy retail business. AGL is Australia’s biggest carbon emitter and the consortium had planned to speed up the closure of its coal-fired power plants.”We are no longer engaged,” a Brookfield spokesperson said, declining to comment further.Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comRegisterThe revised proposal was pitched at A$8.25 a share, a 15% premium to AGL’s share price on Feb. 18, ahead of a first surprise approach from the Brookfield-led consortium at A$7.50 a share. The premium above AGL’s close last Friday.AGL’s shares fell 1.2% to A$7.34 on Monday but stayed above their pre-bid price.AGL is looking to split into two companies called Accel and AGL Australia following a 75% slump in the group’s value over the past five years, hammered by an influx of cheap solar and wind power and government pressure on utilities to slash power prices to households.Chief Executive Graeme Hunt said the demerged businesses would both have growth prospects in the shift to cleaner energy, with the biggest energy retail customer base in AGL Australia and valuable energy sites with 2.7 gigawatts of projects in the Accel business.”We see that the combined value of both entities is higher than the value of the company as it stands today, but none of that has been reflected in the offer that we received,” Hunt told Reuters.Cannon-Brookes said on Twitter the demerger path “was a terrible outcome for shareholders, taxpayers, customers, Australia and the planet we all share”.Fund managers who have shunned AGL’s shares over the past few years said it was hard to put a value on its demerger plan in a market that faces a range of challenges in the energy transition.Morgan Stanley raised its price target AGL to A$7.50 from A$6.88 on Friday and said there was potential for a 25% to 30% rise in a scenario in which all its coal-fired plants are closed by 2030 and it invests in 10 GW of renewables and back-up capacity.($1 = 1.3570 Australian dollars)Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comRegisterReporting by Sonali Paul in Melbourne and Savyata Mishra in Bengaluru; Editing by Chris ReeseOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. .

Australia’s AGL Energy rejects $3.5 bln offer, backs decision to split

Australia’s AGL Energy rejects $3.5 bln offer, backs decision to split

  • Australia’s 2nd richest man, Canada’s Brookfield made joint bid
  • Offer was at a 4.7% premium to AGL’s last close
  • AGL says demerger plans on track

Feb 21 (Reuters) – Australian power producer AGL Energy Ltd on Monday rejected a $3.54 billion takeover offer from billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes and Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management (BAMa.TO) in favour of its plan of splitting in two this year.AGL said the A$7.50 apiece proposal from Cannon-Brookes, Australia’s second-richest man and co-founder of software firm Atlassian, and the Canadian buyout group was a 4.7% premium to the stock’s Friday close and undervalued it.”The proposal does not offer an adequate premium for a change of control and is not in the best interests of AGL Energy shareholders,” AGL Chairman Peter Botten said.Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comRegisterThe unsolicited cash proposal with an option for AGL shareholders to elect a scrip alternative also provided limited other information about how the deal would be structured, Botten said.Cannon-Brookes’ investment vehicle, Grok Ventures, and Brookfield did not immediately respond to a request for comment.The profits and value of AGL, Australia’s biggest polluter, have shrunk on government pressure to cut retail rates, waning investor appetite for coal-fired power and an influx of solar and wind energy into the grid.The Australian Financial Review had reported on Sunday that the parties made a joint bid for AGL which included plans to halt its proposed split into a bulk power generator and a carbon-neutral energy retailer. AGL plans to re-brand as Accel Energy and hold the company’s coal-fired power plants and wind farm contracts. It would spin off AGL Australia Ltd, the country’s biggest retailer of electricity and gas, into a separately listed company. read more AGL said earlier this month it had made significant progress in its demerger plans and repeated on Monday that the split was on track to be completed by June. “The board is confident that the demerger will create a strong future for both parts of the business,” Botten said.($1 = 1.3961 Australian dollars)Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comRegisterReporting by Harish Sridharan and Shashwat Awasthi in Bengaluru; editing by Grant McCoolOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. .