The British government plans to sell a minority stake in a new nuclear power station to institutional investors or float it on the stock market, to remove China General Nuclear Power Group from the project, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.
The state-owned Chinese company has a 20% stake in the proposed Sizewell C nuclear plant in Suffolk, eastern England, that France's EDF is scheduled to build as a 20-billion-pound project with backing from CGN, the report added.
The government is in negotiations to hold the stake until it can be sold on to institutional investors, the newspaper reported, citing people briefed on the situation. Britain is also examining the option to float the stake on the stock market through an initial public offering, it added.
"CGN is a valued partner at Hinkley Point C and a shareholder in Sizewell C up until the point of the government’s Final Investment Decision. Negotiations are ongoing and no final decision has been taken", Britain's Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said in an emailed statement.
Government ministers also plan to block CGN's plans to build a nuclear power station on the east coast at Bradwell-on-Sea in Essex, the report added.
A CGN official and EDF declined to comment.
(Reporting by Aakriti Bhalla in Bengaluru, additional reporting by Dominique Patton in Beijing and Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman, Simon Cameron-Moore and Louise Heavens) ((Aakriti.Bhalla@thomsonreuters.com;))
