Jean-Bernard Lévy will step down as CEO of EDF. After the announcement of the rise of the State to 100% of the capital of the French energy company, he commissioned a contracting firm to look for a replacement for him who will assume his duties in September.

More according to information from echoes, the government would have already suffered several refusals. To make the job more attractive, he would consider inflating the EDF CEO’s pay ceiling, set at 450,000 euros a year.

A text from 2012

This ceiling is not specific to the energy company. It was introduced by decree in 2012, following the election of François Hollande, to limit the annual gross remuneration of heads of public companies.

“The idea would be to blow up the ceiling on the remuneration of the head of EDF, set at 450,000 euros per year as in all other public companies,” he told the echoes a source familiar with the subject.

Among the projects entrusted to the new director of EDF: managing the financial situation of the company, which suffered a historic loss of 5,300 million euros in the first half of the year, and completing the construction of six new nuclear reactors.

The government announced last week its intention to withdraw EDF from the stock market, after having bought the missing 15.9% of the company’s capital. The takeover bid will value the shares at 12 euros per unit, for a total cost of 9,700 million euros for public finances.