British Gas owner Centrica has said it is buying a 20% stake in nuclear firm British Energy for 2.3bn pounds. BBC reported the news by starting off with saying that the owner of British Energy is the French EDF and at first it was agreed that Centrica will buy 25% for the price of 3.1bn pounds. Then the article explains that Centrica and EDF plan to build additional nuclear plants in the UK and in a statement Centrica said that the deal should be positive for both customers and investors, because it lowers the exposure of the company to energy price volatility. The article then explains about EDF and there is a list of British Energy’s nuclear plants. The company has 8 power stations generating 14% of UK’s domestic energy supply. Then it says that the shares of the company increased by 3.6% after they announced about the deal and in overall the article is positive and uses positive quotes by people in high positions in the company.
The Wall Street Journal started with the same information about the deal as BBC. However, they included far more details and data compared to BBC, but did not analyse them. Most of the article was from an interview conducted by their UK representative, Selina Williams and it was mainly quoted.
The article of the FT was relatively short. They started off in the same way but they said that the UK gas group will pay about half in cash and the balance will be accounted for with the transfer to EDF of Centrica's 51 per cent stake in SPE, Belgium's second-largest power producer. The FT doesn’t use any quotes and they talk about the history of the deal and that the two companies have been struggling for quite a while to reach a compromise. Also, the FT includes data which is interesting for potential and current investors, such as that EDF had said it would not accept less than what it paid for British Energy at 765p a share and the group is facing a substantial investment programme both in France and abroad, with the costs of its new generation EPR reactor skyrocketing and the nuclear revival opening up markets more quickly than anticipated. The article says that EDF has some current financial problems, but for Centrica the deal will be beneficial.
As usually the article in Bloomberg is the longest. It includes all of the above information and a lot more. The article is divided into different sections, including UK Power, Belgian Assets, German Utilities, etc. they are aimed to different stakeholders of the two companies and therefore to people with different interests. It includes both financial and business and economics information.
In overall the deal is quite good for Centrica as this is the first time they enter the nuclear power sector. However, they are experienced with power and energy supply and therefore can exploit fully the advantages of the new acquisition.
The Wall Street Journal started with the same information about the deal as BBC. However, they included far more details and data compared to BBC, but did not analyse them. Most of the article was from an interview conducted by their UK representative, Selina Williams and it was mainly quoted.
The article of the FT was relatively short. They started off in the same way but they said that the UK gas group will pay about half in cash and the balance will be accounted for with the transfer to EDF of Centrica's 51 per cent stake in SPE, Belgium's second-largest power producer. The FT doesn’t use any quotes and they talk about the history of the deal and that the two companies have been struggling for quite a while to reach a compromise. Also, the FT includes data which is interesting for potential and current investors, such as that EDF had said it would not accept less than what it paid for British Energy at 765p a share and the group is facing a substantial investment programme both in France and abroad, with the costs of its new generation EPR reactor skyrocketing and the nuclear revival opening up markets more quickly than anticipated. The article says that EDF has some current financial problems, but for Centrica the deal will be beneficial.
As usually the article in Bloomberg is the longest. It includes all of the above information and a lot more. The article is divided into different sections, including UK Power, Belgian Assets, German Utilities, etc. they are aimed to different stakeholders of the two companies and therefore to people with different interests. It includes both financial and business and economics information.
In overall the deal is quite good for Centrica as this is the first time they enter the nuclear power sector. However, they are experienced with power and energy supply and therefore can exploit fully the advantages of the new acquisition.
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