Given the drop in electricity prices, the EDF Public Electrician Group is focusing on operational performance and simplification to improve its financial situation and prepare the colossal construction of nuclear recovery.
As anticipated, the company maintained 100% by the State registered a gain in the first half at a net decrease of 22% for a year, to 5.47 billion euros, penalized by the fusion of electricity prices in the markets.
“Despite the increase in nuclear production” by 2.5%, EDF saw its EBITDA, an indicator of profitability, falling largely by 17.11% to 15.5 billion euros, while its turnover was sold 1.28% to establish itself at 59.43 billion euros during the period.
However, the new CEO Bernard Fontana described these results as “solids”, evoking, for example, the group’s debt, still abyssal but less than 4.4 billion euros compared to the end of 2024 and now increased to 50 billion.
This financial presentation was the first in EDF for Bernard Fontana, an industrial profile designated by ELYSÉE in early May in particular to take control of the vast construction of nuclear recovery, which provides the construction of six new EPR2 reactors.
The former general director of Framatome, a subsidiary of EDF, happened to his predecessor Luc Remont, whose relations with the state of action and the manufacturers had been built in the context of disagreements, mainly in the financing of the new nuclear program and the electricity rate for the industry.
Upon arrival, Bernard Fontana has been established as priorities to pacify EDF relations with the State and industrialists and continue to improve the group’s operational performance to prepare it better for the recovery of nuclear.
1.5 billion savings per year
With this in mind, the new boss is based on the recent reorganization of governance and respect for “delivery time.” Behind this formula that repeats to envy, the CEO aims to reduce the time to carry out operations or processes.
“The progress of ‘delivery time’ is at the source of significant profits in time, but also in cost. Therefore, it is not about asking our colleagues in infernal rates, but we are often arrested, we are waiting, we have complex interfaces,” he illustrated during a press conference.
On this occasion, he confirmed a plan of one billion and a half euros per year of savings on the general costs by 2030, which reflects the desire to simplify the organization.
It is also based on “a selective approach to international investments”, especially on renewable energies when EDF is already involved in the pharaonic site of new reactors.
“It is not forbidden to imagine that support the asset portfolio,” said Bernard Fontana, in response to rumors of elimination of renewable assets in wind and solar, especially in the United States and Brazil, and added that the group would see “that it will be necessary or not to activate the time.”
Long -term contracts
The weakness of electricity prices, which reflects a demand in medium, almost at the same level as 20 years ago, pushes the group to put double snacks to conquer very large consumers of megawatts, such as industrialists and data centers.
This new commercial policy, which is based in particular on the medium and long term contracts for companies, must replace the regulation mechanism that forced EDF to sell part of its electricity at broken prices to broken suppliers and the most consuming industrialists from January 1, 2026.
The resumption of negotiations with the manufacturers, who had shot in the confrontation in recent months, has allowed progress: the side of the long -term contract, EDF recently announced the comprehension memorandum with the chemistry groups Arkema and Kem One, and an agreement translated into contracts for 10 years with aluminum Dunkirk, the largest consumption factor in the country.
EDF also announced the names of the two digital actors selected to enter final negotiations for an establishment on land belonging to it, respectively in Sena-Et-Marne and Moselle: Opcore, subsidiary of the Iliad and Infravia group, and Eclairion.
Source: BFM TV
