EDF and KKR Close to Deal

EDF is nearing a deal with private equity group Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co (KKR) that it hopes could trump billionaire businessman Warren Buffett in his agreed $4.7bn take-over of Baltimore-based Constellation Energy.

Details will be finalized this week at a meeting between Pierre Gadonneix, chief executive of the French electricity group and KKR executives in the US. This meeting will be used to discuss a new assault on the company it had chosen as its bridgehead into North America, where it is looking to tap into the revival of civil nuclear power generation.

EDF's advisers are working out the structure of any bid vehicle in order to comply with U.S. regulations, which bar majority foreign ownership of nuclear assets.

The French electricity group, fresh from having clinched an agreed ?15.7bn offer for British Energy, is hoping to convene a board meeting in the next two weeks to approve a revived approach with KKR.

Author: Jo Amey