French Nuclear Venture Loses Partner - WSJ.com
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JANUARY 23, 2009, 10:07 P.M. ET
French Nuclear Venture Loses Partner By DAVID GAU TH IE R -VILLA RS and MIKE ESTERL in Frankfurt, and MAR CU S W ALKER in Berlin
Siemens AG on Monday will announce its withdrawal from a joint venture with France's nuclear giant Areva SA, people familiar with the situation said. The venture, Areva NP, is the world's largest maker of nuclear-power reactors by revenue. Siemens will decide to sell its 34% interest in Areva NP at a board meeting Monday, these people said. The German conglomerate's decision will bring to an end a 10-year partnership with Areva and could trigger a restructuring of France's nuclear industry. The industry is thought to have bright prospects for the next few decades as global-warming fears push governments to rein in the use of fossil fuels and to start or restart nuclear-power programs. Yet, Siemens's pullout presents a financing problem for Areva. The Siemens stake is valued at €2.1 billion ($2.73 billion) on Areva's books, and Areva is obliged to buy it back according to terms of a 1999 agreement. In addition, Areva needs to invest heavily to take advantage of increased demand for its products and services. That leaves the French government with a dilemma: It hasn't got the funds, but is still eager to retain control over what it regards as a strategic company. Areva Chief Executive Officer Anne Lauvergeon has said she would like to raise about €3 billion through a capital increase that would dilute the French government's stake but leave it with a majority holding. The weak state of world financial markets would make that difficult now. In recent years, Siemens had sought to convert its interest in Areva NP into a stake in parent company Areva. In 2007, the French government made clear its opposition to such a move, unless Germany reversed a decision to phase out nuclear power by 2020. German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats agreed in 2005 to uphold the phase-out plan. But many in her party fear that losing nuclear energy will leave Germany short of electricity, or more dependent on high-polluting brown coal and Russian gas. French officials said the government would take a fresh look at a proposal by Alstom SA, a French maker of high-speed trains and power-generation plants. Alstom is offering to create a vast heavy-engineering conglomerate by combining Alstom and Areva in a single entity. But Ms. Lauvergeon recently said the Alstom proposal "won't bring much synergy and Alstom won't give me the cash I need." Write to David Gauthier-Villars at
[email protected], Mike Esterl at
[email protected] and Marcus Walker at
[email protected]
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French Nuclear Venture Loses Partner - WSJ.com
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