All options open on EDF, including nationalisation, Le Maire says

PARIS (Reuters) -All options are on the table regarding the future of French power utility EDF, finance minister Bruno Le Maire said on Tuesday, including full nationalisation.

Asked in an interview with BFM Business radio whether a potential option was to nationalise the already 84% state-owned company, Le Maire said: “If all options are on the table, they are all on the table.”

Le Maire’s comments mark a shift in tone as debt-laden EDF is facing larges-scale investments to build at least six next-generation nuclear reactors, announced last week by President Emmanuel Macron.

Sources at the finance ministry previously said that there were no plans to nationalise EDF.

“There is not a scenario of that nature on the table,” a ministry source said in January.

Macron last week said that France’s nuclear renaissance, a major policy shift that consists of extending the lifespan of old reactors while building up to eight new EPR2 reactors, will be led by EDF, which said it had started hiring over 15,000 people this year.

But EDF’s shares have lost close to 40% of their value as curbs to shield French consumers from soaring power prices added to a series of technical setbacks which forced the utility to halt a number of its nuclear reactors.

In Tuesday’s interview, Le Maire reiterated that the government will support the French power giant.

“We will be there (for EDF) and we will decide together which is the best option,” Le Maire said.

EDF shares traded 2.5% higher in early trade following the Le Maire interview.

(Reporting by Tassilo Hummel; editing by David Goodman and Jason Neely)