Toshiba to buy majority in nuclear fuel firm
TOKYO, April 30 - Toshiba Corp has agreed to buy a majority stake in a Japanese nuclear fuel producer for about $103 million, as it gears up to tap demand for nuclear power generation worldwide.
Toshiba has said it aimed to provide services covering the nuclear power generation cycle from fuel procurement to design, production and maintenance of plant equipment.
It is hoping to win 33 orders for nuclear reactors worldwide by 2015 as concerns about global warming and rising fuel costs boost demand for nuclear energy.
Toshiba unit Westinghouse Electric will buy a 52 percent stake in Nuclear Fuel Industries Ltd from Furukawa Electric Co and Sumitomo Electric Industries by the end of next month, the three companies said.
Reuters reported in March last year that Toshiba was in talks to buy the fuel processing joint venture.
NFI is the only Japanese nuclear fuel producer able to handle fuel for both pressurized water reactors, which Westinghouse makes, and boiling water reactors, a Toshiba specialty. It has annual sales of about 20 billion yen .
This month, French nuclear reactor builder Areva said it would work together with Japanese machinery conglomerate Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd and others to produce nuclear fuel in Japan.
Furukawa Electric and Sumitomo Electric's stakes in the venture will come down to 24 percent each.
