Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd, Japan's largest heavy-machinery company, may offer to buy US-based Westinghouse Electric Co from British Nuclear Fuels Plc to increase its presence in the market for reactors.
Mitsubishi Heavy is negotiating with several US companies on a joint bid to buy Westinghouse from its UK parent, the Nihon Keizai newspaper said, without citing anyone. The transaction is worth as much as ?200 billion (US$1.78 billion), the report said.
"We want to buy Westinghouse," said Hideo Ikuno, a manager at Daiya PR Ltd, a Tokyo-based public relations company that represents Mitsubishi Heavy, declining to give further details.
The acquisition would be part of a major shift in strategy for Mitsubishi Heavy as it reorganizes operations, said Yasuhiro Matsumoto at BNP Paribas Securities (Japan) Ltd in Tokyo. The company, whose products range from ships and aircraft to turbines and air conditioners, said in December it would spin off three parts of its industrial machinery division.
"It's a necessary shift for Mitsubishi Heavy to stay competitive in the nuclear business," said Matsumoto, a senior credit analyst.
Mitsubishi Heavy wants to complete negotiations by the end of the year, Nikkei English newswire reported. The company may make the bid with Mitsubishi Corp, which could help raise funds for the acquisition and get overseas orders for nuclear power plants, Nikkei Telecom21 said, without citing where it got the information.
Daresbury-based British Nuclear said last week its Westinghouse unit, whose technology is used by almost half of the nuclear plants in the world, has drawn interest from 15 potential buyers as record oil prices spur interest in alternative energy.
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