EDF May Swap Nuclear Plants for Iberdrola Stake-Paper

By Marie Maitre and Chang-Ran Kim

PARIS/MADRID (Reuters) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy has persuaded his Spanish counterpart to let EDF take a 15 to 18 percent stake in Spain's Iberdrola in exchange for control of some nuclear power plants in France, ABC newspaper reported.

Citing no sources, ABC said this solution would allow state-controlled EDF (EDF.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) to gain a foot in Spain, and let Iberdrola (IBE.MC: Quote, Profile, Research) add more nuclear power to its portfolio while Spain keeps the lid on building more nuclear plants at home.

"In exchange, the national champion of French energy will hand over (to Iberdrola) some basic assets from its business and, specifically, nuclear plants that will be managed by Iberdrola on French territory," ABC said on Friday.

A spokeswoman at EDF declined to comment on Friday's report, only reiterating recent comments made by EDF Chief Executive Pierre Gadonneix on the matter.

Gadonneix has said EDF was interested in entering both the Spanish and Belgian markets only if friendly deals were possible, and indicated that a deal on Iberdrola could take at least 18 months to materialize.

On Friday, Sarkozy said France and Spain were looking for solutions by consensus. "On the energy issue, we are in very regular contact," Sarkozy told a news conference in Brussels.

"We work very well with the Spanish government and we try to find solutions by consensus, not just on electricity, but also on Sacyr (SVO.MC: Quote, Profile, Research), and all current issues," he added, referring to Sacyr Vallehermoso's acrimonious battle to take over French public works and concession firm Eiffage (FOUG.PA: Quote, Profile, Research).

Any EDF-Iberdrola deal would need the backing of the Spanish government, which put numerous hurdles in the way of a takeover bid by Germany's E.ON EONG.DE for Endesa (ELE.MC: Quote, Profile, Research), which was eventually bought by Enel (ENEI.MI: Quote, Profile, Research) and Acciona (ANA.MC: Quote, Profile, Research).