EDF seeks new CEO as France plans full nationalisation

EDF has become a major headache owing to years of delays on new nuclear plants, with budget overruns in the billions of euros, while half of its ageing reactors in France are offline, partly due to corrosion problems. EDF said Levy, who criticised the government this year for making it sell nuclear energy at a lower cost than rivals, was prepared to step down as soon as a successor was found.

EDF and the French government are seeking a new boss for the power utility, they said on Thursday, a day after France said it would fully renationalize the debt-laden company. EDF, in which the state already has an 84% stake, is one of Europe's biggest utilities and is central to France's nuclear strategy, which the government is banking on to blunt the impact of soaring energy prices exacerbated by the war in Ukraine.

"The roadmap for the future leader of EDF is to produce more ... as quickly as possible, it is the construction of six new EPR nuclear reactors and it is the continuation of the commitment to renewable energies", Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told Europe 1 radio. He did not suggest a replacement for Levy, 67, who has been at the helm of the company since 2014 and was due to step down by March 2023, but he outlined some job requirements.

"It has to be someone who masters the major industrial programs... and who has a sense of compromise. With the trade unions, with the European Commission, it will be necessary that we all find a compromise on the transformation of this company," he said. EDF has become a major headache owing to years of delays on new nuclear plants, with budget overruns in the billions of euros, while half of its aging reactors in France are offline, partly due to corrosion problems.

EDF said Levy, who criticized the government this year for making it sell nuclear energy at a lower cost than rivals, was prepared to step down as soon as a successor was found. Le Maire said changing CEO was not a punishment for his criticism. Citi analyst Piotr Dzieciolowski said the government was likely to fully nationalize EDF via a share offer rather than law, calling it an "easier and probably cheaper option, and we think there is a high probability it will be done at a premium to the current share price."

Buying the shares the government does not already own at the current prices would cost about 5 billion euros ($5.1 billion). ($1 = 0.9791 euros) 

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