China is set to take a 33.5 percent stake in a 16-billion-pound ($25-billion) nuclear power project being built by French utility EDF at Hinkley Point in southwest England, Les Echos newspaper reported on its website on Monday. The deal was sealed just ahead of China's president Xi Jinping to Britain on Tuesday and Wednesday. Two Chinese state-owned companies, CGN and CNNC, will invest in the project, Les Echos said, without citing any sources. EDF had no immediate comment.
The company had said on Sunday it hoped to announce a deal with Chinese investors in the coming days. The project to build two Areva-designed EPR reactors was announced in October 2013, but financial problems at French group Areva and long delays at two EPR reactors under construction in France and Finland have pushed back the British project.