EDF Fined $6 Million in Market-Abuse Case Over Nuclear Project

(Bloomberg) -- Electricite de France SA was fined 5 million euros ($6 million) by France’s markets regulator for providing false information on the Hinkley Point C nuclear project.

EDF and former Chief Executive Officer Henri Proglio, who was fined 50,000 euros, failed to properly disclose new circumstances concerning the U.K. project’s financing, the Autorité des Marchés Financiers said in a statement on Thursday.

In October 2013, EDF announced it would build the U.K.’s first nuclear reactors since 1995 after reaching a deal with the government on guaranteed prices for the power they’d generate. The energy firm also said the project would benefit from a British credit guarantee on conditions that were yet-to-be agreed.

EDF and Proglio should have specified in a statement a year later that there had been significant changes on the guarantees, the AMF said. EDF and its current CEO Jean-Bernard Levy were cleared of a second accusation brought forward by AMF investigators.

The AMF’s enforcement committee assesses civil market-abuse cases ranging from insider trading to publishing misleading information.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.