French investigating UraMin spying allegations

A FRENCH newspaper has reported that French prosecutors are examining allegations of spying by private investigators who examined the business affairs of former Areva CEO Anne Lauvergeon and her husband Olivier Fric concerning the 2007 acquisition of African uranium explorer UraMin.

The weekly French newspaper, Le Canard Enchaîné, which specialises in the reporting of scandals in the French government, reported that Lauvergeon filed a criminal complaint after discovering a private investigators’ report focusing on the purchase of a Namibian uranium mine during Lauvergeon’s tenure as Areva’s CEO. According to MineWeb.com, the newspaper said the investigation focused on whether Fric had ‘illegally benefitted’ from Areva’s US$2,5 billion acquisition of UraMin.The private investigation allegedly concluded there was no evidence that Fric had financially benefitted from the deal.After ten years at the helm of Areva, Lauvergeon was replaced as CEO in June by Luc Oursel.State-owned Areva recently announced it is taking a US$1,97 billion write-down on the UraMin assets. The company lowered the resource estimate at UraMin’s Trekkopje uranium project in Namibia from 45 200 tonnes to 26 000 tonnes of uranium, a 42 per cent reduction.Meanwhile, Areva’s troubles are growing as Standard and Poor’s downgraded the company’s credit rating two notches this week.S&P downgraded Areva from ‘BBB+/A-2’ to ‘BBB-/A-3’, citing ‘very weak profitability and credit metrics’. However the outlook is ‘stable’ because of ‘the new management’s focus on improving profitability through drastic cost reductions, and its intention to limit debt increases by funding negative free cash flow in 2012 through further asset disposals’, said the credit ratings agency.Standard & Poor’s said its downward assessment of Areva is a combination of several negatives factors, including ‘Areva’s extremely low EBITDA guidance for 2011 and the challenges faces the company’s management in 2012-13 to improve profitability and curb negative class flow’.’In addition, the near complete write-down of Areva’s US$2,5 billion UraMin acquisition in 2007 has raised further questions about historic strategic decisions,’ said Paris-based S&P Credit Analysts Karl Nievelt and Lucas Sevenin. – MineWeb.com

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