UPDATE: Areva Has Several Non-Binding Offers For Power Unit
September 18 2009 - 1:04PM
Dow Jones News
French nuclear group Areva SA (CEI.FR) has received several
non-binding offers for its power transmission and distribution
unit, a spokeswoman said Friday.
"We have received several non-binding offers and we are going to
examine them in order to see which candidates will go to a binding
offer," the spokeswoman told Dow Jones Newswires. She declined to
say how many offers Areva has received.
"At the end of September we will say if we will continue the
selling process, which depends upon whether we have suitable
offers," the spokeswoman added.
"Or we will say we are stopping the selling process if no offer
is considered acceptable," she said.
Areva announced June 30 plans to raise capital and put the
T&D unit up for sale in order to finance its growth in nuclear
and renewable power.
Chief Executive Anne Lauvergeon said Thursday potential buyers
of the company's T&D unit have until late Friday to make their
first bids.
She had also warned that if bids for the T&D unit prove
insufficient, Areva would need a bigger capital increase.
A spokesman for French power and transport engineering company
Alstom SA (ALO.FR) told Dow Jones Newswires earlier Friday that it
intended to make a joint offer with electrical equipment maker
Schneider Electric SA (SU.FR) for Areva's T&D unit.
The T&D division was previously owned by Alstom and sold to
Areva in 2003 for EUR1 billion as part of Alstom's financial
restructuring.
About 20 buyers, including many foreign parties, such as Japan's
Toshiba Corp (6502.TO), have made inquiries about Areva's T&D,
a person with knowledge of the matter told Dow Jones Newswires
Thursday.
Axa SA's (AXA) private equity unit's chief executive, Dominique
Senequier, said in early September it was also considering making a
bid for Areva T&D and looking at partners it might bid with.
She said a decision wouldn't be taken until the last moment.
-By William Horobin and Geraldine Amiel, Dow Jones Newswires;
+33 1 4017 1740; william.horobin@dowjones.com
(Nathalie Boschat, Gabriele Parussini and Adam Mitchell in Paris
contributed to this article)