Under the Euro Medium Term Note Programme ... - Finance - EDF

Risk Factors
Risks associated with acquisitions and disposals
As part of its development strategy, the EDF Group has carried out and may carry out
transactions involving the acquisition of assets or equity interests, as well as mergers or the
creation of joint ventures and, more generally, all types of external growth transactions.
External growth transactions involve inter alia the following risks: (i) the assumptions used by
the EDF Group in valuing the acquisition may not prove accurate, particularly concerning
market prices, cost savings, profits, synergies and profitability; (ii) difficulties concerning the
quality and performance of assets acquired or the underassessment of the liabilities of
acquired companies may be encountered; (iii) difficulties integrating the businesses or
companies acquired may occur; (iv) the EDF Group may not be able to retain certain key
employees, customers or suppliers of the acquired companies; (v) the EDF Group may be
required or wish to terminate certain pre-existing contractual relationships on costly and/or
unfavourable financial terms; (vi) the EDF Group may increase its debt to finance these
acquisitions, limiting its financial flexibility and the opportunity to obtain additional loans in the
future; and (vii) the EDF Group may be required to make commitments to the antitrust
authorities, which may be implemented on terms that are less favourable than anticipated for
the EDF Group.
Consequently, the benefits expected from future or completed acquisitions may be lower or
may not be obtained as quickly as expected, which could have a negative impact on the EDF
Group’s financial results, financial position and outlook.
The EDF Group has also carried out and may carry out transactions involving the disposal of
assets or equity investments. In the connection with such disposals, the EDF Group may
provide guarantees concerning the assets sold and, consequently, may have to pay
compensation or make price adjustments to the purchaser, which could have a negative
impact on the EDF Group’s financial results, financial position and outlook.
The EDF Group may also decide to not carry out external growth transactions and disposals
it has planned, or to carry them out for a price other than the desired price, due inter alia to
contractual, financial or regulatory limitations, or political intervention. This may have a
negative impact on the EDF Group’s financial results, financial position and outlook.
The various reorganisations required by market liberalisation could have operational
and financial consequences for EDF
Liberalisation of the market has resulted inter alia in a transfer mainly of distribution and
transport activities to subsidiaries and the reorganisation of the joint entities through which
EDF and primarily GDF Suez (formerly Gaz de France) previously managed sales, billing,
customer services and their distribution networks. The various reorganisations may impact
the functioning of marketing and distribution activities and relationships with local authorities.
Furthermore, they may generate substantial costs to adapt support structures and functions,
in particular information systems.
Risks associated with information systems
The EDF Group operates multiple and highly complex information systems (servers,
networks, applications, databases, etc.), which are essential for the conduct of its
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