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12 December, 2005
Electricité de France (EDF) announced last week that it would eliminate 6,500 jobs through the end of 2007 in an apparent attempt to boost the share price of the newly privatised company.
The French government placed shares totalling 15% of the company on the Paris bourse 21 November in hopes of raising capitalisation of €7 billion. It offered EDF shares at €32 to small investors and €33-per-share to institutional investors.
On 7 December, prior to the job cuts announcement, EDF stock was selling at €31.66. EDF said the jobs would be lost by not replacing roughly 70% of the 9,000 workers expected to retire by the end of 2007.