PARIS (Reuters) -Canadian investment fund La Caisse will join up with Britain’s Amber Infrastructure to become the largest private investors in Britain’s Sizewell C nuclear project, French newspaper Les Echos reported on Monday.
The business newspaper said that final decisions on the investment would be made on Tuesday if all went well, citing unnamed sources.
The pair of private investors would provide 25-30% of the capital for the project, the cost of which has ballooned since initial announcements, Les Echos reported.
Britain’s government has committed 17.8 billion pounds to the project but has continued to search for investors.
Reuters previously reported that U.S.-listed investment fund Brookfield would take a stake of more than 20% in the project in exchange for funds to finance the plant’s development and that British utility Centrica could also play a role.
French nuclear energy utility EDF is set to invest around 1.1 billion pounds ($1.48 billion), taking a 12.5% stake in the project.
Amber Infrastructure and Brookfield did not immediately respond to requests for comment. La Caisse, EDF and the UK government declined to comment.
Britain is vying to build new nuclear plants to increase energy security and to reach climate targets. Southeast England’s Sizewell C plant is expected to produce electricity to power 6 million homes when operational.
($1 = 0.7419 pounds)
(Reporting by Makini Brice; additional reporting by Forrest Crellin in Paris and Susanna Twidale in LondonEditing by Tomasz Janowski)
