Will the renationalisation of EDF receive its final green light? The operation desired by the State must begin soon, but small shareholders denounce a conflict of interest of the CEO and count on the commercial court or the policeman of the markets to delay it.
These employee shareholders of the leading producer and the leading supplier of electricity in France and in Europe, denounce a “situation of potential conflict of interest” of the current CEO Jean-Bernard Lévy, his interests having according to them “could influence his decisions and the meaning of his vote in the context of the deliberations of the board of directors of EDF “relating to the takeover bid launched by the State, according to a letter of which AFP has read.
The occupation of the functions of censor called into question
They denounce the occupation by Jean-Bernard Lévy of the functions of censor on the board of directors of Societe Generale, “one of the two establishments presenting the offer designated by the State”, in this letter addressed to the CEO and to the board members.
“Given the ties that have united Mr. Jean-Bernard Lévy and Société Générale for more than a decade, it cannot be denied that Mr. Jean-Bernard Lévy is keen to preserve Société Générale’s interests as much as possible and not to adopt behavior (including in the context of the expression of one’s vote within a governance body of another entity) which could be unfavorable to Societe Generale”, they write.
The other potential conflict of interest raised by these small shareholders concerns the very status of EDF’s CEO, appointed directly by the executive: according to them, the CEO would be unlikely to oppose the renationalisation project wanted by the State, since he would expose himself to dismissal.
A repeated request
These shareholders, mostly employees and former employees who believe they have been wronged by the terms of the takeover bid, meeting under the banner of the EDF shares corporate investment fund (FCPE), have reiterated in this letter their request to convene a new meeting of EDF’s Board of Directors on the same subject. They hold less than 1.5% of the capital.
With this in mind, they have already assigned the group on Monday to summary proceedings before the Paris Commercial Court, whose decision is expected on Thursday. During this hearing, the lawyer for these shareholders denounced the conditions under which the board of directors of the electrician validated the said takeover bid.
These shareholders consider in particular “that the Board of Directors was not validly convened, insofar as the statutory convening period of seven days, provided for by EDF’s internal regulations, was not respected”.
Pronunciation deadlines not respected
Another grievance, “all the documents to allow the administrators to decide on the project” (…) “were not sent to the administrators within a reasonable time, since they were received on October 26 between 8:00 p.m. and 11:02 p.m. , less than 12 hours, and during the night, preceding the meeting of the board of directors of EDF”, according to this letter.
On October 4, the French state officially launched the process of renationalizing EDF, a 9.7 billion euro operation wanted by the government to relaunch a vast nuclear program after a dark year for the electricity group.