Arabelle turbines: General Electric and EDF agree on the sale price
The American conglomerate, which has wanted for two years to separate from its steam turbine activity (formerly Alstom), has reached an agreement with the French energy company who will spend a little more than one billion euros to acquire this entity. which manufactures nuclear turbines in particular.
It's just a matter of days. According to several sources contacted by Challenges, General Electric (GE), which for two years has wanted to separate from its steam turbine business (ex-Alstom), has finally reached an agreement with EDF on the sale price which should slightly exceed the billion euros. The formalization of the sale of this strategic entity which manufactures nuclear turbines in particular should take place by early February on the occasion of the arrival in France of the CEO of GE, Larry Culp. "EDF and GE are OK on the price, there are only tiny details to settle concerning the perimeter of the acquisition", specifies a person familiar with the file. At the same time, GE commissioned the consulting firm Experconnect at the start of the year to identify and reflect on GE Steam Power positions (the steam turbine entity) that would not be taken over by EDF.
Since the controversial sale, in 2014, of the energy pole of Alstom to GE, supported at the time by Emmanuel Macron who was Deputy Secretary General of the Elysee (2012-2014), then Minister of the Economy (2014-2016 ), this subject is explosive. While in seven years, the American giant has cut 5,000 jobs in France, including 1,200 in Belfort, the Élysée and Bercy have been working for months on this operation. "The need to strengthen our strategic sectors and our industry, which the pandemic has come to remind us with force, led us to this capital takeover, confides a ministerial source. In the summer of 2020, the Elysee decided to step up to speed higher by asking EDF to recover this activity. "
Macron also expected in Belfort
However, the French energy company was not initially favorable to this operation. He wanted to spend less than a billion euros for a division valued at 1.5 billion during the takeover by GE. One of the sticking points was that GE intended to improve its assets and order book. However, EDF did not want to pay twice, as a customer, then as a buyer. Given the amount of the check that is about to pay the tricolor group, it is not said that he has totally obtained what he wanted. "The negotiations were long but somewhere everyone knew the outcome, continues the connoisseur of the aforementioned file. GE really wanted to sell and the State really wanted to buy."
The latter, which owns more than 80% of EDF, is not doing a bad job, however, as the nuclear market is very dynamic. While orders for turbines for thermal power plants have plummeted due to the decline in coal, nuclear has accounted for the bulk of recent Steam orders. This was notably boosted by the Hinkley Point megaproject, which should bring in $ 1.9 billion to GE, and by the commercial success of the Russian giant Rosatom, with which GE collaborates for the Akkuyu plants in Turkey, and Paks, Hungary. The realization of this very political file is in any case expected with a firm footing at the Elysee Palace, where a trip by the Head of State to Belfort has been preparing for many months to celebrate the "French industrial reconquest."