CKI to bid for EDF’s British power lines

• 14 years ago (2010-05-10)
• David Flin

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Cheung Kong Infrastructure (CKI) Holdings of Hong Kong, which owns 40 per cent of Hong Kong’s power generation business, is considering a £4 billion plus bid for EDF’s British electricity distribution business.

EDF has invited final bids for the unit, which includes power links to Heathrow and Gatwick airport, the London Underground network and mainline London rail stations, by the end of May. The sale of the EDF’s UK power business is expected to raise £4-4.5 billion.

Two other consortia, Scottish and Southern Energy with the Canadian infrastructure fund Borealis, and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority with Macquarie Capital and Canada Pension Plan, are interested in submitting bids, although both have declined to comment on this. A winner is due to be announced in June.

The distribution business includes 100,000 miles of cables across eastern England, London and the South East, and carries 20 per cent of the UK’s energy supply. EDF Energy, its UK arm, is the country’s biggest generator, producing about 28 per cent of the UK’s electricity.

EDF, the world’s biggest nuclear generator with 58 reactors in France, said back in October that it would sell its UK distribution business to cut its €42.5 billion of debt from acqusitions in 2008, including British Energy.