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EDF has approved plans to sell off €4 billion of new shares ahead of a final investment decision on Hinkley Point C, Bloomberg has reported.
The decision will be on the agenda for a meeting of the French energy giant’s board which will take place tomorrow morning.
“The share sale will improve the financial strength of the company and allow it to renew its debt under good conditions,” chief executive Jean-Bernard Lévy was quoted as saying at a shareholder meeting in Paris on Tuesday.
The French government, which currently owns an 85 per cent stake in the company, will reportedly buy up €3 billion of the shares.
Earlier this week a body representing EDF workers reportedly took legal action to hold up a decision on the new nuclear plant in Somerset. French unions have called for the project to be delayed by three years because of concerns over the European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) technology which will be used at the plant.
There are currently no working examples of the technology and those reactors which are being built in France, Finland and China have been plagued by cost overruns and delays. France’s Nuclear Safety Authority is currently conducting tests on the reactor vessel at Flamanville 3 in Normandy after finding a manufacturing “anomaly”.
Unions want EDF to wait to make a decision on Hinkley until at least one of the reactors is up and running.
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