Edison is ready to make new investments in Italy to grow in retail through acquisitions. Furthermore, the energy company is evaluating the opportunity to open the capital to Italian shareholders and to re-list the share on Piazza Affari. This was stated by the new CEO, Marc Benayoun, on the sidelines of the assembly on the balance sheet of the group controlled by EDF.
Among the possible targets, Benayoun also mentioned Eni's Gas&Power division (almost 8 million customers in Italy), which however “to date is not an open opportunity but only a market rumor. Of course, for us it would be a game changing, a big leap and an interesting dossier because it sees an important presence on retail gas".
The CEO, in his first public appearance after his appointment to the company's top management in December, underlined that Edison has "great ambitions on the retail market and energy efficiency services" and that it currently has a strong presence in generation but "only 1,2 .XNUMX million customers”.
Therefore, “the activity must be balanced with organic growth and M&A – concluded Benayoun –, the goal could be to reach 4-6 million customers in the next three-five years”.
As for the return to Piazza Affari, added Benayoun, “it could be possible. It hasn't been decided and there isn't a short-term project, but it is something we are studying with a horizon of a few years”, while the withdrawal of the savings shares, the only ones still listed, “is not a project”.
With the appointment of the new board, today, Edison has become the largest Italian company with a majority female board: Sylvie Jehanno, Edf's retail manager (proof of the fact that Edison wants to concentrate on the customer side), and Marie -Christine Aulagnon, planning director of Edf.
“Edison is a strategic activity for the Edf group: we want to grow in retail, especially in view of 2018, when the standard offer will end. We can do this in many ways, with new offers, by acquiring business brands or directly with retail portfolios,” added Benayoun.
Finally, a joke on the financial situation of the parent company Edf, for which hypotheses of a capital increase are circulating: "It is not a risk for Edison, none of this has a direct impact on our ambitions in Italy".
Furthermore, today the shareholders' meeting approved the financial statements of the parent company Edison Spa for 2015, which closed with a net loss of 776 million euros (-37 million euros in the previous year). In turn, the Edison Group closed 2015 with revenues of 11,3 billion euros and a net loss of 980 million euros following the write-downs determined by the impairment process which were partially offset by the positive conclusion of the last gas supply contract arbitration.
In the extraordinary session, the shareholders' meeting approved the capital increase in kind reserved for Transalpina di Energia for a total of 247 million euros - of which 85,3 million by way of nominal capital increase and 161,7 million by way of share premium - to service the contribution of Fenice to Edison. The transfer deed was signed at the end of the shareholders' meeting and will take effect from 1 April 2016.
Also in the extraordinary session, the shareholders' meeting approved the full coverage of the loss for the year 2015 through the use of all the reserves existing at 31 December 2015 and the share premium reserve formed with the subscription of the capital increase functional to the contribution of Fenice at Edison.
