In trouble on nuclear power after Fukushima, Henri Proglio, the strong-willed president of the French EDF, wants to use other instruments for the growth of his group. And thus push the accelerator to take control of the Italian Edison. "We should be able to convince the Italian government and the industrialists involved in the company," he underlined in an interview with the newspaper Le Monde, out this afternoon. Those words immediately gave life to the share of the electricity company in Milan: after starting the day subduedly, the share reached +4%. At around 15 pm it was still gaining 45%, at €3,95.
It is no news that the French want to "strengthen their position in Edison", as Proglio explained to Le Monde. But now the manager, close to President Nicolas Sarkozy, seems to want to speed things up. On the other hand, after Fukushima various projects were frozen (also in Italy). The problem is that nuclear power is the flagship activity of the French public group. Proglio underlined that in the horizon of 2020 EDF wants to become the first electricity group in the world, precisely by expanding in the countries where it is already present, including Italy. Edison's majority shareholder (61%) is Transalpina di Energia, jointly controlled by the Italian company Delmi (in turn controlled by the utility A2A) and by Edf. At the end of March, Bruno Lescoeur, arriving from the French society, had already taken the place of Umberto Quadrino as CEO of Edison.
Proglio's statements come at a delicate moment, before the run-off in Milan. A2A is controlled by the municipalities of Milan and by that of Brescia. The new mayor of the Lombard capital will have his say on this whole affair.
