Centrica nails Br Energy deal as EC clears EDF buy

13th Nov 2009 07:51

Centrica is free to complete its purchase of a 20% stake in British Energy from Electricité de France (EDF) following the European Commission's decision to clear EDF's purchase of the UK group's Belgian business, Segebel.The acquisition of the British Energy holding had been approved by the Office of Fair Trading in August, but the deals were inter-conditional, so now both can complete.Gas supplier Centrica will also offtake 20% of the uncontracted power from the British Energy fleet. EDF and Centrica will also form a separate 80/20 joint venture through which they will undertake the pre-development activities for a planned nuclear new build programme, with the intention of constructing, and operating and decommissioning four European Pressurised Reactors. The French firm will also provide Centrica with an extra 18 terawatt hours of power at market prices over five years from 2011. The operational performance of the British Energy nuclear fleet has improved, with 42.5TWh of power generated in the first three quarters of the year, 42 per cent above the level in the same period of 2008. "This is a welcome decision and we look forward to completing the British Energy transaction shortly," said Centrica chief Sam Laidlaw. "We believe nuclear energy is an essential component in ensuring clean, secure energy for the UK and we are proud to be part of the nuclear renaissance in the UK.""The price secured for the sale of SPE will help preserve our balance sheet firepower as we focus on other investment opportunities that will further underpin UK energy supply security."It's expected the transactions will complete simultaneously on 26 November.