Centrica plc (CNA.L) said the European Commission announced that it has cleared the proposed purchase by Electricité de France SA of Centrica's majority holding in its Belgian business, SPE, through the purchase by the EDF Group of Segebel SA.
This announcement follows the decision by the Office of Fair Trading in August to approve Centrica's acquisition of 20% of British Energy from EDF. Centrica stated that its investment in British Energy and the acquisition of SPE by the EDF Group are inter-conditional and hence both transactions can now complete.
Also, Centrica noted that it will offtake 20%t of the uncontracted power from the British Energy fleet and EDF and the company will form a separate 80/20 joint venture through which they will undertake the pre-development activities for a planned nuclear new build programme, with the intention of constructing, and operating and decommissioning 4 European Pressurised Reactors.
The company added that EDF will also provide it with an additional 18TWh of power at market prices over 5 years from 2011.
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