After a year of intense and tiring negotiations, the Edison case finally seems to have come to a conclusion. Under the agreement signed at dawn on December 27, the French of EDF obtain 80,7% of Edison's capital, while Edipower ends up 100% in the hands of the Italians.
In fact, Edf will acquire 50% of Transalpina di Energia (Tde), the holding company that owns 61,3% of Edison, from Delmi. The transaction takes place at 0,84 euros per Edison share, a slightly lower figure than the initial requests made by the Italians. In any case, authorization from Consob is required to obtain the definitive approval. In relation to Edipower, on the other hand, Delmi acquires 50% from Edf and 20% from the Swiss Alpiq, for 600 and 200 million euros, thus reaching 70%. 20% will then go to A2a, while 10% to Iren.
The risk is, however, that once an understanding has been reached with the transalpines, frictions will emerge within the Italian front. In fact, it seems that a consistent intolerance is emerging among Iren's shareholders in relation to the governance of Delmi, the distribution of Edipower's debt (amounting to around one billion) and the division of the various assets. Edipower has extremely productive hydroelectric structures and coal-fired plants which instead require very substantial interventions to achieve a good degree of competitiveness. Issues that will be addressed in the context of the supervisory and management boards of A2a and, subsequently, in the Delmi board.
