It is essential to speed up recovery
efforts on profitability, French Finance Minister Francois Baroin told
Jean-Cyril Spinetta, the president of French power and transport engineering
group Areva SA (AREVA.FR) in a letter, published Monday by French Internet news
site Owni.
"Given the major challenges which are faced after Fukushima, it is
necessary to restore the group's profitability so that it can finance its development
projects," Baroin wrote.
"The board of directors should strive to reach the new objectives fixed
for 2012 and a double-digit operational margin as quickly as possible, in any
case, by 2015 at the latest," Baroin wrote, adding that "these objectives
aim to create value for the group's shareholders."
The French state-controlled nuclear engineering firm warned in July that even
as it continued to believe in nuclear power as a viable long-term energy
source, it was still assessing the impact of the Fukushima nuclear accident on
the global nuclear market and couldn't yet issue long-term guidance on the
effects of the disaster.
In the first half, Areva's net profit stood at EUR351 million, down from EUR843
million a year earlier. Its operating profit stood at EUR710 million, compared
to an operating loss of EUR485 million a year earlier.
A spokeswoman said that it was "an ordinary letter that the state, as the
group's majority shareholder, has sent to the board of directors" and that
the letter dated from several months ago.