THE NETHERLANDS MOVING AHEAD WITH URENCO SALE

The Dutch government late last week outlined intentions to move forward with plans to sell its stake in the uranium enrichment firm URENCO, paving the way for private ownership of the company. This comes after the U.K. government and the German utilities that are the remaining owners of the company have also announced plans for a sale, which led to the decision from the Netherlands. “These developments have forced the Netherlands to think about the consequences of a possible sale of shares by the other shareholders. Such a sale could put the Netherlands in a position of minority shareholder between new private shareholders, as seems highly likely,” Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem said in a letter Thursday. He added, “No such sale of Dutch shares in URENCO can take place unless the public interest in terms of non-proliferation, security and security of supply is safeguarded. The Netherlands is currently holding talks on the matter with the United Kingdom and Germany.”