Lawyers for British Energy and EDF of France were completing the final paperwork on a £12.4bn merger last night amid hopes that the formal deal can be fully signed off and announced to the London stockmarket as early as tomorrow.
It is hard to see how EDF can sign off any final investment decision whilst the government has yet to resolve this important issue".
While all trace of this network has been wiped off EDF's websites, at least some of the charge points remain active, as the sign above in the Montparnasse district of Paris attests.
They had just completed a week-long occupation of West Burton power station in Nottinghamshire, forced French owners EDF to switch the power off and prevented the emission of 19,117 tonnes of carbon dioxide.
Any renegotiation would likely need sign-off from EDF's board, who have just been rebuffed in a very public humiliation by the UK government.
Hinkley Point C nuclear plant, for example, has been discussed since 2009, but will not open before 2023 (it is still awaiting the final sign-off from EDF, the French energy provider that will run it).
As well as causing carefully targeted blackouts, including of the private homes of government ministers, they have restored supply to consumers disconnected for non-payment.The partial sell-off of EDF had been expected to take place this year, but has now been postponed.
Over the weekend, EDF said it could hold off increasing bills until 2015, having raised its prices less than other firms in anticipation of government action to cut levies.
EDF has promised to sell off unwanted land at other British Energy sites so that rival power companies can develop new reactors at Bradwell, Essex, and either Heysham, Lancashire, or Dungeness, Kent.
Anne Lauvergeon, Areva's chief executive, says she would be happy to see EDF as a shareholder, but not with a seat on the board: that might scare off potential customers, who may well be in competition with EDF.
This decision, combined with a one-off gain of €534m from a physical inventory of EDF's assets, produced the whole of the increase in EDF's operating profits in 2003, which were €6.83 billion, compared with a pro-forma €5.15 billion in 2002.This increase is dwarfed by one significant omission in EDF's adoption of the international accounting standards: the standard on employee benefits.
