China president's UK visit is chance for EDF to clinch Hinkley Point deal

PARIS (Reuters) - French utility EDF hopes to sign a commercial agreement with its Chinese partners to build two nuclear reactors in Hinkley Point, Britain in October, but a final investment decision on the project could take a few more weeks or months after that, an industrial source told Reuters. The source, confirming a report in French financial daily Les Echos, said Chinese President Xi Jinping's planned Oct. 20-23 visit to Britain would provide a "window of opportunity" for EDF to finalise commercial agreements with its partners, Chinese utilities CGN and CNNC. "Once that is done, the final investment decision is the logical consequence," the source said. The source said administrative "formalities" for this decision would take more time. EDF chief executive Jean-Bernard Levy said in July he was optimistic about moving very quickly towards a final investment decision on Hinkley Point after the summer break. The 16 billion pound ($24.23 billion) project to build two Areva-designed EPR reactors was announced in October 2013, but financial problems at Areva and long delays at two EPR reactors under construction in France and Finland have delayed the British project. Les Echos quoted an EDF official as saying that the company hoped its Chinese partners would use the occasion of the Chinese president's visit to reach an agreement and it had asked its Chinese partners to take a 40 percent stake in the project. Originally, China General Nuclear Corporation (CGN) and China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) were set to take a combined 30-40 percent stake, while Areva would take 10 percent. But Areva's reactor building arm has been taken over by EDF following four years of losses which had wiped out Areva's capital. (Reporting by Geert De Clercq; editing by Andrew Callus, Jason Neely and Jane Merriman)