British Energy Deal Collapses At Last Minute
It a was billed as the way forward for the UK nuclear industry (in the hands of a French company!) and it was supposed to have been signed sealed and delivered last week, but last night saw the EDF takeover of British Energy fall apart after two shareholders blocked the deal. So what went wrong?
The deal looked to have been done only for Invesco and Prudential to withdraw their support for the deal and demanded more cash. With EDF having already increased its offer over the last couple of days from 700p to 765p they were not prepared to go any higher and the deal unravelled very quickly. While the government is blaming the British Energy board for the fiasco this is yet another example of shareholder power and in truth there was no way the board could recommend the offer with two major shareholders holding out for more.
However, as far as the UK government is concerned not only does this put the UK Nuclear program back to square one but it also takes away a £4.5 billion windfall which could not have come at a better time for the Treasury. Despite behind the scenes moves to get the deal back on track it looks as though it is dead, at least for now.
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