The senior management of BNFL are due to meet in the coming days to ratify the deal to sell Westinghouse, in a deal worth GBP2.8 billion, to the nuclear energy specialist. The sale represents close to a 500% profit for the UK company, which bought the US firm for just $1.1 billion six years ago.
According to the Financial Times Toshiba’s offer topped competing bids from US group General Electric and Japanese rival Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.
Construction outfit Westinghouse is a specialist in building nuclear power plants. Toshiba, which already has an established pedigree of building power stations in Japan, is expected to use the acquisition to develop its overseas business, particularly in India and China where energy demand is growing rapidly.
The sale, from which BNFL will earn more than double its original estimate, comes as nuclear power has returned to the forefront of international thinking on the issue of future power needs.