Areva must lay out strategy before any financial operation: Macron

Reuters

Published Mar 03, 2015 09:00AM ET

Areva must lay out strategy before any financial operation: Macron

PARIS (Reuters) - State-controlled nuclear group Areva (PA:AREVA) must lay out its industrial strategy and clearly present its financial situation before the French state will consider any financial operation, Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron told Reuters on Tuesday.

Hours before Areva's management is due to brief unions on its turnaround plan, and ahead of the company's full-year results publication and strategy news on Wednesday, Macron did not rule out asset sale announcements, but he refused to be specific.

"The company must present its operational and strategic choices before the state will rush into any financial operations," Macron said.

Asked whether the state was considering a capital increase, Macron said "the priority for the company is to clearly present its real financial and operational situation and to put in place a turnaround plan before any operation whatsoever can be considered".

The French state owns 87 percent of the capital of Areva, which said last week it would book a 4.9 billion euro ($5.48 billion) 2014 loss due to depreciations and writedowns.

Last week, Macron shot down the possibility of selling shares in state-owned EDF (PA:EDF) or GDF Suez (PA:GSZ) to raise funds for a capital injection.

He declined to comment on whether the state could use part of the billion euros raised by the sale of a 4 percent stake in defense group Safran (PA:SAF) on Monday.