By Nathan Allen 
 

Shares in Electricite de France SA (EDF.FR) rose Wednesday as investors responded to French President Emmanuel Macron's 10-year plan to reduce the country's reliance on nuclear energy more slowly than initially planned.

Mr. Macron promised on Tuesday to reduce the share of nuclear energy in France's total power production to 50% by 2035 from an earlier deadline of 2025.

EDF's shares initially fell on the news Tuesday, but recovered later in the session and continued to gain on Wednesday.

"We think the market initially missed the importance of this event. We think the key points were very positive," UBS analyst Sam Arie said.

At 1154 GMT, EDF was trading 2.7% higher at EUR14.43, having earlier risen as high as EUR14.65.

EDF currently operates 58 nuclear plants in France, accounting for nearly 75% of the country's energy mix. However, the government has been under pressure from environmental groups to reduce reliance on nuclear power in favor of renewable sources. Mr. Macron said 14 of the reactors would be closed by 2035.

Separately, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe told French TV the government will decide in 2019 whether to increase its 83.7% holding in EDF, which would provide an injection of funds to allow the company to invest in new projects.

Regarding a long-speculated breakup of EDF, Environment Minister Francois de Rugy said the government wanted to keep EDF as an "integrated group" but suggested some of the company's assets may be placed into subsidiaries.

Jefferies analyst Ahmed Farman said the slower phasing out of nuclear power fits better with EDF's business model and some form of restructuring would be positive for the group, though details are still too limited to draw any conclusions about valuation.

However, Bryan Garnier's Pierre-Antoine Chazal was less optimistic, describing the plan as slightly negative for the company because of the government's lack of clarity on the restructuring plans, which could penalize the stock.

Write to Nathan Allen at nathan.allen@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 28, 2018 07:22 ET (12:22 GMT)