The two companies, which currently jointly own the biomass and anaerobic digestion specialist, are in advanced discussions over Veolia – the French parent company of UK waste business Veolia Environmental Services – taking control of Dalkias international activities, while EDF will retain control of Dalkias operations in France.
Among Dalkias UK operations is the 120,000 tonnes per year capacity waste wood-fed biomass plant at Chilton, County Durham, which began operations in 2011 (see letsrecycle.com story).
The plant is one of the first biomass facilities to be developed in the UK dedicated to burning domestic waste wood and also sells electricity to the National Grid, rather than to an industrial site.
It also has plans for a 360,000 tonnes per year capacity waste wood burning biomass plant at Pollington in Yorkshire – which was originally scheduled to come online in 2014 (see letsrecycle.com story).
Discussions
In a joint statement, Veolia and EDF said: The discussions currently underway envisage the acquisition by EDF of the entire activities of the Dalkia group in France, while Veolia Environnement would acquire the entire activities of Dalkia International. In connection with the transaction, Veolia Environnement would make a cash payment of 550 (470) million to EDF to compensate for the difference in value between the stakes owned by the two shareholders in the various entities of the Dalkia group.
The transaction would be neutral for the net financial debt of Veolia Environnement, which currently provides most of the Dalkia group financing. For EDF, this transaction would improve its net debt/EBITDA ratio.
According to the companies the transaction would also put an end to litigation between the two currently pending before the Paris Commercial Court.
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