EDF Wins First Approval for Constellation Nuclear Buy

By Tina Seeley

Feb. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Electricite de France SA won initial U.S. approval for its $4.5 billion purchase of half of Constellation Energy Group Inc.’s nuclear-power business, in a bid to enter the U.S. electricity market.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission voted unanimously today in favor of the purchase, which still needs approval from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Nuclear regulations prohibit foreign-owned companies from “owning, controlling or dominating” companies that have licenses to operate U.S. reactors.

Also, the Maryland Public Service Commission has set a hearing March 27 to consider whether it has authority to review the transaction, as requested by the state’s attorney general.

Constellation rose 50 cents, or 2.2 percent, to $22.80 at 10:42 a.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading after falling 77 percent in the year before today.

Baltimore-based Constellation chose the cash offer from EDF of Paris over a competing bid for the entire company from Warren Buffett’s MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co., which valued Constellation at $4.7 billion.

The commission also approved an agreement that gives Constellation the option to sell interest in non-nuclear power plants to EDF.

To contact the reporter on this story: Tina Seeley in Washington at tseeley@bloomberg.net.