Alstom and Schneider Electric buy Areva T&D business

French nuclear group Areva has signed an agreement to sell its power transmission and distribution (T&D) business to industrial companies Alstom and Schneider Electric.
Alstom and Schneider plan to split the T&D assets between them, with Alstom taking the transmission part of the business and Schneider acquiring the distribution operations.

The decision to sell Areva's T&D business was taken by the Supervisory Board on 30 June 2009 after a review of the group's development plan. At the close of the bidding process, the Areva supervisory board, convened on 30 November 2009, asked the executive board to begin exclusive negotiations with Alstom and Schneider Electric to draw up the terms of an agreement providing for:

• A sale price of 4.09bn euros in enterprise value,
• A commitment to maintaining all European sites for a three-year period,
• Guarantees for the workforce: all European employees are to be offered a similar position in the same geographical area at an equivalent qualification level and without loss of compensation or seniority; unless the economic situation deteriorates significantly, there will be no layoff program except for voluntary terminations.

Closing will occur once the anti-trust authorities have given their approval and after a decree has been published, following the recommendation of the French Commission des Participations et des Transferts.