Dow Jones Newswires: French government to pay $9.8 billion to take EDF private

United States
By Cristina Roca

The French government said Tuesday that it plans to pay about 9.7 billion euros ($ 9.84 billion) to take Electricite de France SA private.

The French state plans to launch a public tender offer of EUR12 a share for all the shares it doesn’t already own in the energy company, representing about 15.9% of its capital, the Finance Ministry said. It will also buy other instruments, it said.

The offer price represents a significant premium compared with EDF shares’ closing price of EUR8.48 on July 4, the day before the French state made public its plans to take the company private.

The ministry expects that the offer will be filed to the regulator by early September.

Write to Cristina Roca at cristina.roca@wsj.com