SEOUL, KOREA - KEPCO has plunged into a competition to acquire the Urenco Group, a nuclear fuel company operating uranium enrichment plants in Europe and the United States. Valued at up to 10 billion euros (US$13.3 billion), the deal is expected to be the world's largest M&A case to date.
According to investment banking sources on June 13, Korea's state-run electric utility announced that it would participate in a bid to acquire the UK-based company and is currently in talks with several large Korean companies for creating a possible consortium. The mostly likely consortium partner is SK Group.
Earlier, KEPCO had discussed with Urenco management to invest in its New Mexico plant as a joint venture partner. But it changed its mind after learning that the governments of the UK and the Netherlands, the largest shareholders in the company, were trying to sell off the stakes in the company.
Established in 1971 as a joint venture among the governments of the UK, Germany, and the Netherlands, Urenco accounts for more than a third of the world's enriched uranium market. Currently the company is owned equally by the governments of the UK and the Netherlands and Germany's E.On-RWE consortium.
Urenco's sales revenue last year was 1.6 billion euros (US$2.1 billion), with a net profit of 402 million euros ($536 million). The two European nations' governments have decided to sell off the well-managed company to pay down their debts.
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