EDF began taking day-to-day control of Britain's nuclear industry yesterday, with the chief executive of British Energy now reporting directly to the UK head of the Paris-based company.
A day after declaring its £12.5 billion takeover of East Kilbride headquartered British Energy wholly unconditional, EDF appointed five of its executives to the board of directors of what is now its UK subsidiary.
In a statement, EDF said managem
ent of British Energy would now answer to Vincent de Rivaz, who had been promoted to head the enlarged EDF Energy, the company's UK operation.
"Pierre Gadonneix, chairman and CEO of EDF Group, has asked Vincent de Rivaz to lead this new company as its chief executive officer," the statement said.
It added that Bill Coley would "continue in his existing role" as chief executive of British Energy, but report to de Rivaz.
EDF effectively finalised the takeover when it declared its bid wholly unconditional on Monday afternoon, revealing that it owned or had control of more than 96 per cent of British Energy shares. After taking control of more than 90 per cent of shares it was able to force outstanding shareholders to sell their stakes.
The takeover by EDF became inevitable once the deal was given EU competition authority clearance last month.
EDF said yesterday that declaring the bid unconditional allowed it "to start the process of bringing EDF Energy and British Energy together".
Joining the board of British Energy are Humphrey Cadoux-Hudson, EDF Energy's chief financial officer, Goulven Graillat, the company's head of industrial strategy, Anne Le Lorier, a member of the EDF group executive committee, and recruitment director Jacques Regaldo.
Coley, the Texan who has run the company since shortly after it returned to the London Stock Exchange in 2005, is expected to leave the company in the coming months, although he has promised he will help with the integration of the two companies. Officially British Energy will remain an independent company until at least 2 February, when the company's shares are removed from the London Stock Exchange.
The French company has already begun using its influence over the British government, calling for the safety and approval process for new nuclear plants to be "streamlined" and warning that new plants risked being delayed.
EDF won UK government support for its bid after it pledged to build four new nuclear power plants in England and make other sites owned by British Energy available to rival companies that want to develop new nuclear capacity.
But the French state-controlled group's chairman and chief executive, Gadonneix, was quoted yesterday as saying that if the UK government wanted to meet the target of having the first reactor generating by 2017 it would need to have a regulatory process that was "as fluent as possible".
PROFILEWHILE not holding a seat on the board of the company he works for, EDF Energy chief executive Vincent de Rivaz cements his place as a key figure in the British power industry this week as he begins overseeing control of nuclear operator British Energy.
A graduate of the National College of Hydraulics in Grenoble, de Rivaz has worked his entire career with the French state-controlled company. Joining as an engineer in its international division in 1977, he was promoted to executive vice-president of its Far East division in 1992. Appointed chief executive of EDF Energy in 2002, he led the integration of London Electricity Group and Seeboard in 2003, building EDF into one of Britain's biggest electricity retailers. It is now set to become one of the country's leading generators.
