Areva To Begin New Talks With T&D Bidders Next Week -Source
09 Ottobre 2009 - 7:28PM
Dow Jones News
French nuclear group Areva SA (CEI.FR) plans next week to start
a new round of dialogue with the three bidders for the transmission
and distribution unit it plans to sell, a person with knowledge of
the matter told Dow Jones Newswires Friday.
Areva has said it has selected three potential buyers of its
T&D unit and U.S.-based General Electric Co. (GE) has confirmed
it is one of them, along with its partner CVC Capital Partners.
An all-French consortium of Schneider Electric SA (SU.FR) and
Alstom SA (ALO.FR) also has confirmed it is in the race. People
familiar with the situation say Japan's Toshiba Corp. (6502.TO) is
the other company in the trio of potential buyers in the second
phase of the bidding process.
An offer by GE is the only one currently detailed enough to form
an opinion on, the person with knowledge of the matter said.
"When you look at the offers, the only offer you can have an
opinion on" is that of General Electric, the person said, adding:
"They wrote down everything they want to do."
-By Adam Mitchell, Dow Jones Newswires, +33 1 40171756;
adam.mitchell@dowjones.com
(Nathalie Boschat in Paris contributed to this article.)