Government sells £2.2 billion stake in nuclear power

Source: Energy Digital

Date :31/05/2007 09:50:28

The government said yesterday it was selling a £2.2 billion stake in nuclear power generator British Energy.

The company announced a sharp rise in profits and its first dividend since a state-backed rescue operation in 2002.

400 million shares are being offered to institutional investors.

The sale will cut the government's 64 percent stake, acquired at the time of the 2002 bail-out, to 39 percent but the Department of Trade and Industry said it was committed to keeping a holding of at least 29.9 percent.

Trade and industry secretary Alistair Darling said the money raised from the sale of the stake would be used to help finance the clean-up of British Energy sites as existing nuclear plants are closed down.

British Energy is already looking at potential partners to develop its existing sites for new nuclear generation and said yesterday that it had been surprised at the extent of the interest which had been generated.

British Energy, which produces up to a fifth of Britain's electricity needs from its eight nuclear and one coal-fired plant, said earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation had risen from £846 million to £1.2 billion in the year to the end of March.

The company said it was pressing ahead with plans to seek permission to extend the life of its Hinkley Point B and Hunterston B plants, the two nuclear plants closest to their planned closure dates.

31 May 2007