EDF.PA - Electricité de France S.A.
| Previous close | 9.13 |
| Open | 9.17 |
| Bid | 0.00 x 0 |
| Ask | 0.00 x 0 |
| Day's range | 9.07 - 9.44 |
| 52-week range | 8.93 - 15.50 |
| Volume | 3,251,807 |
| Avg. volume | 2,180,709 |
| Market cap | 27.775B |
| Beta (3Y monthly) | 0.92 |
| PE ratio (TTM) | 19.07 |
| EPS (TTM) | N/A |
| Earnings date | N/A |
| Forward dividend & yield | 0.31 (3.40%) |
| Ex-dividend date | 2019-05-22 |
| 1y target est | N/A |
- Reuters - UK Focus
French nuclear power generation fell 7.6% in Oct. -EDF
Nuclear electricity generation from French reactors operated by utility EDF fell 7.6% year-on-year in October to 29.2 terawatt hours (TWh) on the back of increased reactor outages, the company said on Tuesday. EDF said total output since the start of the year stood at 317.3 TWh, down 1.3% compared with the same period a year ago. The state-controlled utility cut its 2019 nuclear output target in France by 1.2 percentage points to 390 TWh on Oct. 25, citing prolonged maintenance outages, but left its financial target unchanged.
- Bloomberg
ESB Nears Deal for Stake in EDF’s Scottish Wind Farm
(Bloomberg) -- Electricity Supply Board, the state-owned Irish utility, is in advanced talks to buy a stake in a Scottish offshore wind farm project owned by Electricite de France SA, people familiar with the matter said.A deal for a 50% holding in the Neart na Gaoithe development could be announced as soon as the next few weeks, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private.EDF bought the asset from Mainstream Renewable Power Ltd. last year for an undisclosed amount. At the time, EDF said it would open the project to other investors in due course. The 450-megawatt facility is set to cost about 1.8 billion pounds ($2.3 billion) to build and will supply enough electricity for 375,000 homes. It’s due to be commissioned in 2023, the French state-controlled utility has said.No final agreements have been reached, and talks could still be delayed or fall apart, the people said. Representatives for ESB and EDF’s renewables unit declined to comment.Offshore wind developers typically share the costs and risks associated with the development of capital-intensive facilities at sea. The sale would also help EDF meet its target to sell as much as 3 billion euros of assets to curb debt. It’s struggling to maintain enough of a cash flow buffer to cover day-to-day maintenance costs and investments in new nuclear and renewable facilities.Earlier this year, the French utility completed the sale of its 25% stake in Swiss power producer Alpiq Holding AG for 489 million francs ($491 million). EDF agreed in July to sell a package of oil and gas assets for as much as $850 million.To contact the reporters on this story: Francois de Beaupuy in Paris at fdebeaupuy@bloomberg.net;Aaron Kirchfeld in London at akirchfeld@bloomberg.net;Peter Flanagan in Dublin at pflanagan23@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: James Herron at jherron9@bloomberg.net, Reed Landberg, Ben ScentFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Simply Wall St.
Why Electricité de France S.A.’s (EPA:EDF) Return On Capital Employed Looks Uninspiring
Today we'll evaluate Electricité de France S.A. (EPA:EDF) to determine whether it could have potential as an...
- Bloomberg
The U.K. Should Keep Its Fracking Ban for Good
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- The U.K. government’s temporary fracking moratorium should turn into a permanent ban. Allowing shale gas extraction makes sense only when a country is still phasing out coal, and then only under certain conditions. But the U.K. is almost finished with coal, and fracking can only postpone its transition to clean energy.The Conservative government has banned the drilling of new wells that use hydraulic fracturing — a technology that involves pumping liquids, chemicals and sand into bedrock formations to crack them and free up natural gas or oil. This follows a report commissioned by the U.K. Oil and Gas Authority that has linked earth tremors to fracking activity by Cuadrilla Resources Ltd., one of the companies developing shale gas in Britain. The risk of earthquakes arises when fracking is used close to geological faults, and these are hard to detect beforehand with current technology.The U.K. government’s move is a pre-election turnabout: The Conservatives have always backed fracking, but it is unpopular with locals pretty much everywhere it’s used, including in the U.S., the technology’s greatest proponent and beneficiary. In the U.K., 40% of the population — the highest share since 2013 — say they're opposed to fracking, while just 12% support it. But public attitudes shouldn’t be the only reason to impose a fracking ban.As she announced the drilling moratorium, Energy Secretary Andrea Leadsom spoke of “the huge potential of U.K. shale gas to provide a bridge to a zero carbon future.” But, almost regardless of all the earthquake- and water-supply-related concerns, that potential is highly questionable.When it comes to carbon emissions, natural gas is certainly preferable to coal. But the U.K. has almost eliminated coal-fired power plants. Last month, Electricite de France announced that it had shut down its Cottam coal plant, which had provided power to 3 million homes. Most of the few remaining coal-burners are scheduled to close. According to the U.K. Office of Gas and Electricity Markets, coal’s share in the country’s electricity-generation mix reached just 0.5% in the second quarter of 2019.The case made for shale in the U.K. and elsewhere has less to do with moving to clean energy than with importing less natural gas. As conventional gas production on the U.K. continental shelf has declined, imports have been increasing.The idea is that by developing its own shale gas, the U.K. could increase its energy security and drive down energy prices. But thanks to the shale boom in the U.S. and the recent growth in global liquefied-natural-gas exports, it’s unlikely the U.K. will ever experience a gas shortage — and today’s prices are the lowest in almost a decade. Besides, a growing export dependence isn’t necessarily bad. Germany, which banned commercial natural gas fracking in 2017, believes in the concept of natural gas as a bridge to a cleaner energy future and intends to displace coal with gas, not just wind and solar. But it would rather increase imports (thus the country’s staunch support for Nord Stream 2, a Russian natural gas pipeline project fiercely opposed by the U.S. and a number of eastern European countries) than face fracking-related protests. In the immediate future, shale can boost employment — but if a country is serious about its climate goals, it’s a bad idea to let an entire new industry develop and then have to shut it down and incur the costs of compensating its employees for the loss of jobs. This process is already costing billions in the German coal industry. Imports, meanwhile, can be phased out at little political cost. In a recent paper, Katheline Schubert and Fanny Henriet of the Paris School of Economics showed that, in most cases, allowing shale-gas production will slow a country’s switch to clean, renewable energy. Shale gas is cheap, and once it displaces coal it’ll be hard to phase it out. In U.S. power generation, increased consumption of natural gas since 2009 is almost equal to the decrease in use of coal. A ban on fracking, supported in the U.S., for example, by Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren, would require that the country quickly develop a renewables industry to cover that deficit — a costly project to say the least. The Netherlands appears to have embarked on a similar crusade, though. There, a moratorium on fracking runs until 2020 but is highly likely to be extended, despite a still-significant share of coal in the generation mix; the Dutch government plans to drive down the share of gas in the mix from 55% last year to 30% by 2030, and extracting more gas wouldn’t serve that purpose.But the U.K. doesn’t even have to make that difficult choice; it already has a cleaner energy mix than the U.S., Germany or the Netherlands. When France banned fracking in 2011, it didn’t just give in to voters’ fears of tremors and water contamination. It defended its power generation mix, which currently consists of 66% nuclear, 27% renewables and just 5% gas.The U.K. should ban fracking permanently — and not just because of the tremors. In that sense, the Liberal Democrats and Labour, who support a full ban, are on firmer ground before the December parliamentary election than the Conservatives.To contact the author of this story: Leonid Bershidsky at lbershidsky@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Mary Duenwald at mduenwald@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Leonid Bershidsky is Bloomberg Opinion's Europe columnist. He was the founding editor of the Russian business daily Vedomosti and founded the opinion website Slon.ru.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Reuters - UK Focus
UPDATE 1-France's EDF buys UK electric vehicle infrastructure firm Pivot Power
French state-controlled energy group EDF has agreed to buy Pivot Power, a British start-up company that specialises in battery storage and infrastructure for electric vehicle charging points. EDF, which did not disclose the financial terms of the acquisition, said the deal would allow it to become a leader in the fast-growing field of battery storage. Pivot Power is looking at means to host a battery capable of exporting 50 megawatts (MW) of power and to provide support for hundreds of fast electric vehicle chargers, which could be suitable for large retail sites, logistics centres, and bus depots.
- Reuters - UK Focus
France's EDF buys electric vehicle charging point firm Pivot Power
- Reuters - UK Focus
EDF Energy extends outages at UK's Dungeness B21, B22 nuclear reactors to end of January
* EDF's EDF Energy has extended outages at its Dungeness B21 and B22 nuclear reactors in Britain to around the end of January, its website shows. * Dungeness B-21 reactor went offline in September 2018 and was scheduled to come back online in November. * Dungeness B-22 reactor went offline in August 2018 and was scheduled to come back in December.
- Bloomberg
World’s Largest Nuclear Power Producer Confronts Serial Glitches
(Bloomberg) -- Want the lowdown on European markets? In your inbox before the open, every day. Sign up here.On the shores of the English channel in Normandy, engineers are struggling to fix eight faulty welds at a plant that’s supposed to showcase France’s savoir faire in nuclear power.As they consider sending in robots to access hard-to-get-to areas between two containment walls, for Electricite de France it’s just the latest setback in a project that’s running a decade late and almost four times over budget.“We hear every year that there’s a new problem,” Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Monday. “It is not acceptable that one of the most prestigious and strategic sectors for our country is facing so many difficulties.”The Flamanville plant is now slated to be completed in 2022 at a price tag of 12.4 billion euros ($13.8 billion), with the latest glitch costing a whopping 1.5 billion euros. Bemoaning the loss of France’s edge in the sector because of a 15-year gap between the start of construction at the plant and that of the previous reactor, Le Maire has given EDF a month to come up with an action plan to restore the industry’s know-how before the country can determine whether it will build any new atomic plants.For the world’s largest nuclear power producer, Flamanville is just one of many challenges. Across the channel, delays at two U.K. reactors have upped the cost to as much as 22.5 billion pounds ($28.9 billion), 2.9 billion pounds more than previously estimated. EDF also faces mounting costs of maintaining 58 domestic nuclear plants that provide more than 70% of France’s power. Add to the mix the fact that the former electricity monopoly is losing market share among French corporate and residential clients as rivals buy a part of the electricity it generates at below-market prices, and it’s easy to see why investors are bearish about the company. EDF’s stock has lost 34% this year, making it the second worst-performing utility in the Stoxx 600 Utilities Index of European companies. A year ago, EDF was Europe’s biggest utility by market value. Now, its market capitalization stands at 28 billion euros, less than half that of Italy’s Enel SpA, which has swelled to 69 billion euros on the success of its renewable business. RWE AG, the German utility planning to shut down its nuclear plants and progressively phase out coal-fired plants, is up 43% this year and Orsted A/S, the Danish champion in offshore wind, whose revenue is about a sixth of EDF’s, has surpassed the French giant.“Investors are staying away because of current uncertainties following the strongly negative news flow on the reputation of the nuclear industry,” said Auguste Deryckx, an analyst at AlphaValue. “The CEO’s stubbornness in pursuing nuclear, which is limiting potential growth in renewables that are better valued by the market, remains a black spot.”EDF is struggling to cover the 15 billion euros it needs annually to maintain its aging nuclear reactors, build new atomic and renewable projects, upgrade its electricity network and roll out smart meters, even after cutting 1.1 billion euros in cost cuts in the past four years. Profits have been hit not only by falling power prices, but by safety issues that have forced reactors to be shut for several months in France and the U.K. Other clouds on the horizon—the decommissioning of two of its oldest reactors next year and a dozen more by 2035, and the treatment of nuclear waste. The one-time monopoly—now about 83% owned by the state—needs some drastic measures, says Chief Executive Officer Jean-Bernard Levy, who’s pushing the state for an increase in the regulated prices at which rivals buy the company’s nuclear power.Under a system introduced almost a decade ago to boost competition, rival power suppliers can buy about a quarter of EDF’s nuclear output at 42 euros per megawatt-hour, about 10 euros below current wholesale prices. EDF is asking for the price—unchanged since 2012—to be boosted as deep-pocket rivals including oil and gas producers Total SA and Eni SpA and Engie SA have grabbed almost a quarter of the French power retail market and are making further inroads with discounted offers.“Markets thought that (President) Emmanuel Macron would help EDF with a more favorable regulation, which hasn’t happened,” said Tancrede Fulop, an analyst at Morningstar Investment Service. “That implies a lack of visibility on earnings and dividend compared to the rest of the sector.”For the longer term, the French government is considering ring-fencing EDF’s nuclear operations and listing a minority stake in its distribution and renewable business.“EDF’s investment case is in our view one of political support,” Vincent Ayral, an analyst at JPMorgan Chase & Co, wrote in a note this month. “A potential larger restructuring of EDF and a re-regulation of the French nuclear activity (which may be separated) could unlock some of the deep value we see embedded in the stock.”But for that to happen the government has to convince the European competition regulator that the utility needs a more lucrative framework for its nuclear output and that the reorganization will boost competition, something that will take several months, if not longer. Favorable regulation is becoming urgent for EDF, which has sold 10 billion euros of assets in the past four years, and is planning as much as 3 billion euros in extra divestment by the end of 2020 to prevent its 37.4 billion euros in net financial debt from swelling. Selling more assets is unsustainable in the long term, and EDF mustn’t resort to another capital increase after having sold 4 billion euros of new shares in 2017, the CEO has said.“A reform of the (price) regulation is essential, and without it, no change in the group’s organization is justified,” Levy told managers this month in a letter, which was obtained by Bloomberg. “That’s simply because reorganization without better regulation won’t be enough to give EDF the financial means” to invest in newer energy sources.EDF plans to almost double its capacities in hydro, wind and solar power between 2015 and 2030. But the company, which operates about 80% of France’s hydro-electric concessions, may see that share shrink as the EU asks France to open the market to new entrants. The French government, meanwhile, remains cagey about raising the regulated nuclear power price for fear of increasing households’ electricity bills. For Morningstar’s Fulop, EDF is being increasingly painted into a corner. “It feels like the company shouldn’t be listed, because it’s almost a public service provider aimed at preserving the purchasing power of French households,” he said. “That creates a misalignment of interests between the state—its main shareholder—and minority shareholders.”To contact the author of this story: Francois De Beaupuy in Paris at fdebeaupuy@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Vidya N Root at vroot@bloomberg.netFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
- Reuters - UK Focus
UK GAS-Prompt prices drop on system oversupply
- Reuters - UK Focus
JERAGM seeks up to 0.5 mln tonnes of LNG for Q1 2020 delivery - sources
- Reuters - UK Focus
UPDATE 2-UK regulator looks to cut costs of new Hinkley Point grid link
British energy market regulator said it would grant National Grid 637 million pounds ($803.38 million) to build the transmission link for the Hinkley Point C nuclear plant, lower than the company's initial request for 717 million pounds. Ofgem said on Tuesday consumers will save money under its plans to reduce National Grid Electricity Transmission's (NGET) funding request to connect the new Hinkley Point C nuclear reactor to the grid. The regulator's move comes after EDF said last month that its Hinkley Point C nuclear plant could cost up to 2.9 billion pounds more than its last estimate, and face further delays.
- Simply Wall St.
Should You Buy Electricité de France S.A. (EPA:EDF) For Its Dividend?
Is Electricité de France S.A. (EPA:EDF) a good dividend stock? How can we tell? Dividend paying companies with growing...
- Reuters - UK Focus
UK employers slam $249 bln cost of Labour renationalisation plans
A British employers' group criticised on Monday what it said would be the "beyond eye-watering" cost of the opposition Labour Party's plans to return utilities, train companies and the Royal Mail to public ownership. The Labour Party has moved sharply to the left under its leader Jeremy Corbyn, and although it lags the ruling Conservatives in opinion polls, Brexit turmoil and the likelihood of an early election could see it take power. The Confederation of British Industry said Labour's plans would have an upfront cost of 196 billion pounds ($249 billion), assuming Labour paid the full market value of companies involved - similar to a 176 billion-pound estimate made last year by the pro-privatisation Centre for Policy Studies think tank.
- Reuters - UK Focus
CORRECTED-EDF ready to replace Flamanville reactor cover by 2024
French utility EDF is ready to replace the steel cover of its Flamanville 3 reactor vessel by 2024 as required by nuclear regulator ASN, despite new delays to its start-up date, an EDF official said on Wednesday. In June 2017, the ASN ruled that EDF would be allowed to start up the long-delayed reactor in late 2018 provided it committed to replacing the flawed component by the end of 2024 at the latest because of weak spots in the steel. Earlier on Wednesday EDF increased the reactor's projected cost by 1.5 billion euros to 12.4 billion euros - about four times the original estimate - and said that it now expects to load nuclear fuel into the reactor at the end of 2022.
- Reuters - UK Focus
EDF nuclear power generation fell 8.6% in September
Electricity generation from French nuclear reactors operated by utility EDF fell 8.6% year-on-year in September to 27.5 terawatt hours (TWh) due to a high number of reactor outages, the company said on Monday. The state-controlled utility said total output from its nuclear reactors since the start of the year stood at 288.2 TWh, down 0.6% compared with the same period a year ago. EDF's nuclear electricity generation in France was at 393.2 TWh in 2018 and it is targeting 395 TWh in 2019.
- Reuters - UK Focus
UK big six energy firms' 2018 supply profits sank as customers turned to smaller rivals
Profits from supplying gas and electricity at Britain’s big six energy firms sank by a combined 35 percent last year as they continued to lose customers to smaller rivals, a report by energy market regulator Ofgem said on Thursday. Britain’s so-called 'Big Six' energy suppliers - Centrica's British Gas, E.ON, SSE, EDF's EDF Energy, Innogy's npower and Iberdrola's Scottish Power - have faced competition from more than 60 smaller firms, often offering cheaper prices. In its annual state of the market report, Ofgem said the six companies had lost around 1.3 million customers and they served just above 70% of domestic customers as of June this year, down from around 75% in June last year.
- Reuters - UK Focus
EDF boss pledges action on nuclear delays and cost overruns
EDF will take concrete action to remedy a string of technical problems, delays and cost overruns at its nuclear plants, its CEO said on Tuesday after coming under heavy criticism from the French finance minister over the weekend. In unusually tart comments, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire had said that the government could no longer accept how 84% state-owned EDF's costs keep "drifting, month after month, year after year".
- Reuters - UK Focus
LIVE MARKETS-U.S. President impeachments: What does history tell us?
* European stocks under pressure as Trump impeachment probe knocks confidence * Euro-zone index hits Sept. 5 low, down 1.3% * STOXXE and major bourses set for worst day in 6 weeks * EDF falls as co flags rising Hinkley Point costs * Wall Street futures point to weak U.S. open Welcome to the home for real-time coverage of European equity markets brought to you by Reuters stocks reporters and anchored today by Josephine Mason. Reach her on Messenger to share your thoughts on market moves: rm://josephine.mason.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net U.S. PRESIDENT IMPEACHMENTS: WHAT DOES HISTORY TELL US?
- Yahoo Finance UK
European stocks sink amid impeachment market turmoil
European stocks looked set for their worst day in six weeks, as markets reacted to political turmoil.
- Bloomberg
Quelle Surprise, Another New Nuclear Blow-Up
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Massive infrastructure projects are almost always delivered late and over budget. The bill for London’s Crossrail project has risen to 17.6 billion pounds ($21.9 billion), while the country’s north-south HS2 rail link may end up costing an unfathomable 88 billion pounds.Even so, there’s a place in budgetary hell reserved for new nuclear power plants, for whom financial commitments and completion dates seem to be entirely malleable concepts (at least outside China).A pair of reactors under construction at Hinkley Point in the west of England are a case in point. The project’s chief backer Electricite de France SA warned on Wednesday of up to 2.9 billion pounds in cost overruns, meaning the bill could rise to a whopping 22.5 billion pounds. The risk of delays has also increased.The hope is that Hinkley will start delivering power at the end of 2025 and will then supply about 7% of the country’s electricity. But in view of previous delays, EDF’s assurances on this are about as cast-iron as a soggy croissant.When British trains are delayed, rail companies are known to blame the wrong kind of snow, leaves or even sunlight. EDF says “challenging ground conditions” caused the latest setback, which is worrying because you’d think digging a hole would be the easy bit.EDF’s setbacks at Hinkley are far from isolated. It has yet to get other nuclear projects using the same advanced reactor design up and running in Europe — projects in Finland and France are delayed too — and it’s facing troubling questions about technical flaws in existing French plants. The company’s struggles, which have precipitated a 27% decline in the stock this year, present a strong argument for rethinking its structure. A tentative plan to nationalize its nuclear activities and spin off its renewables and distribution networks makes more sense by the day.The cost overruns at Hinkley are a reminder too that those still hoping giant new nuclear power plants will help solve the climate crisis may be sorely disappointed. The power Hinkley will deliver, if it’s ever completed, is ludicrously expensive, even if the benefit to EDF is less now that it’s having to shoulder higher construction costs. EDF’s contract with the U.K. government guarantees a price of 92.50 pound per megawatt-hour (in 2012 prices). Last week companies competing to deliver offshore wind in the U.K. were happy to do so for about 40 pounds a megawatt hour.To be clear, it’s wise to keep existing nuclear plants running as long as possible. HBO’s dramatization of events at Chernobyl was chilling but nuclear power has a pretty decent safety record and it doesn’t produce carbon. Cutting carbon emissions to net zero is an epochal challenge and we have precious little time to do it. Decommissioning nuclear plants now, as Germany is doing, is wrong-headed because fossil fuels will have to take up some of the slack.New nuclear plants, especially the large and expensive ones EDF wants to build, are another matter. The best that could be said for Hinkley was that it would provide a valuable learning experience, building up technical knowledge and supply chains that would allow future projects to be built much more cheaply. Unfortunately the lesson could turn out to be just the opposite: New nuclear power plants won’t save us.To contact the author of this story: Chris Bryant at cbryant32@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: James Boxell at jboxell@bloomberg.netThis column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Chris Bryant is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering industrial companies. He previously worked for the Financial Times.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
