AREVA exercises the option to sell its share in Adwen to Gamesa

Following a 3-month competitive bidding process aimed at obtaining and assessing offers from potential third-party investors, the Board of Directors of AREVA S.A. decided to authorize AREVA’s Executive Management to exercise the option to sell its shares in Adwen to Gamesa.

 Adwen is a 50:50 joint venture between AREVA and Gamesa dedicated to the design, manufacturing, installation, commissioning and services of offshore wind turbines.

When Siemens and Gamesa agreed their merger in June, they specified that Areva had three months to decide whether it wanted to buy out Gamesa's 50 percent Adwen stake.

The total amount for the acquisition reached €60 million (US$67.5 million).

This decision allows the AREVA Group to:

• maximize the value of its shares in Adwen;
• limit and, in the longer term, cap the amount of cash disbursements related to projects already in operation or currently in the installation phase;
• strengthen Adwen’s activities through a stable shareholder base. In particular, Gamesa is aware of the commitments made by Adwen as part of the tender process for the offshore wind farms for electricity generation in France. Those commitments will remain borne by Adwen.

AREVA supplies products and services to support the operation of the global nuclear fleet. The company is present throughout the entire nuclear cycle, from uranium mining to used fuel recycling, including nuclear reactor design and operating services. This agreement marks a further milestone in the strategy to refocus AREVA on the nuclear fuel cycle.