EDF shareholders have asked the AMF (Financial Markets Authority) to “suspend” its decision scheduled for Tuesday on the renationalization of EDF, because they consider themselves aggrieved by the terms of the takeover bid (OPA) carried out by the Condition. They indicate that they have summoned EDF before the Paris Commercial Court, a provisional hearing that was held on Monday afternoon, and whose decision will not be issued until Thursday, the association reported in an email late on Monday. this procedure.
Failure to comply with the legal notice period
On November 4, EDF’s Employee Equity Funds Supervisory Board wrote to the AMF to inform it of the appeal and to ask it in this context to suspend examination of the draft offer, it clarified.
These shareholders, mostly employees and former employees, and gathered under the banner of the investment fund of the EDF shares company (FCPE), which has been joined by the shareholders’ association Energie en actions, challenge the conditions under which the The electrician’s board of directors validated the said takeover bid. Together they represent around 1.5% of the capital, according to a director of Energies en actions. They consider, in particular, “that the board of directors was not validly convened, to the extent that the legal term of seven days for convening, provided for by EDF’s internal regulations, was not respected.”
Only a few hours to consult more than 500 pages of technical documents
Another grievance, “all the documents for the administrators to decide on the project” (…) “were not sent to the administrators in a reasonable time, since they were received on October 26 between 8:00 p.m. and 11:02 p.m., less of 12 hours, and during the night, prior to the meeting of the board of directors of EDF”, according to this letter. The administrators had to read in this period of time “more than 500 pages and documents related to financial and legal analyzes especially technical “, according to the shareholders who denounce “a serious breach of the duty of information”.
Barring appeal, the AMF’s decision is expected on Tuesday, for an opening of the offer on Thursday and a closing on December 8. The State-shareholder (which already owns 84% of the capital) expects to obtain, at the close of the takeover bid, 90%, the threshold from which a forced delisting procedure can be initiated to recover securities. On October 4, the French state officially launched the EDF renationalization process, a €9.7 billion operation sought by the government to relaunch a vast nuclear program after a dark year for the power group.
Source: BFM TV
