Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management, together with institutional partners, has agreed to acquire Westinghouse Electric, the bankrupt nuclear services company, from Toshiba for $4.6bn.

Under the terms of the deal, Brookfield and partners will acquire substantially all of the global business of Westinghouse Electric Company and its affiliated debtors and debtors-in-possession. It also includes the assumption of certain pension, environmental and other operating obligations.

Westinghouse president and CEO José Emeterio Gutiérrez said: “Brookfield’s acquisition of Westinghouse reaffirms our position as the leader of the global nuclear industry.

“Our transformation and strategic restructuring process is creating a stronger, stable, and more streamlined global Westinghouse business, for the benefit of our customers and employees.”

Planned to be completed in the third quarter of 2018, the proposed deal is subject to Bankruptcy Court approval and customary closing conditions including, among others, regulatory approvals.

In March 2017, Westinghouse Electric Company, and certain of its subsidiaries and affiliates, filed for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11 with the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.

The bankruptcy, which does not affect Westinghouse’s operations in Asia and Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), was expected to weigh on the future of the two new nuclear power plants planned to be built in the US.

The two nuclear projects, which will feature Westinghouse’ AP1000 reactors, include the V.C. Summer in South Carolina which is majority owned by SCANA as well as Vogtle nuclear project in Georgia which is being developed by Southern Co-led group of utilities.

Earlier this week, Dominion Energy has agreed to acquire troubled US-based energy firm Scana in a $14.6bn all-stock merger deal including debt. 

The deal is expected to provide significant benefits to Scana's South Carolina Electric & Gas Company subsidiary (SCE&G) electric customers by offsetting the previous and future costs related to the scrapped V.C. Summer nuclear Units 2 and 3 expansion project.

Image: US-based nuclear firm Westinghouse Electric filed for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11 in the US in March 2017. Photo: courtesy of xedos4/FreeDigitalPhotos.net.