France's EDF Shares Sink As Production, Price Woes Mount

Paris, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 14th Jan, 2022 ) :Shares in French energy giant EDF plunged Friday, after a series of blows for the state-controlled firm including shutdowns at nuclear plants, government orders to sell cut-price power and a financial warning.

Tumbling by more than 21 percent in mid-morning trading in Paris, EDF's stock massively undershot the CAC 40 index of leading shares, down 0.8 percent.

The night before, EDF had warned that it would miss its targeted ratio of net debt to underlying profits, after the government ordered it to sell an additional 20 terawatt-hours of electricity from its nuclear plants to competitors at a lower cost.

Designed to ease the pressure on energy bills for consumers as Europe faces a power squeeze, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told newspaper Le Parisien that the measure would cost the power company up to 8.4 billion Euros ($9.6 billion).