ALMATY, Kazakhstan (Dow Jones/AP) — Kazakh state nuclear fuel company Kazatomprom will buy 10 percent of Westinghouse Electric Co. LLC from Toshiba Corp. for $540 million, the companies said Monday.
Kazatomprom plans to use the deal to enter new export markets for its uranium fuel, the companies said. Kazatomprom is the third-largest uranium producer in the world and aims to become the leading uranium miner by 2010 with planned output of over 15,000 tons.
Toshiba expects uranium supply conditions to become tight as demand for nuclear plants rises in China and the U.S. to meet growing energy needs and to cut carbon emissions from fossil fuels.
Kazatomprom Chief Executive Mukhtar Dzhakishev declined to say with how much uranium and nuclear fuel his company plans to supply U.S. nuclear reactor manufacturer Westinghouse.
He said Kazatomprom will fund the deal from its own resources and the deal will be closed in a month from Monday's signing.
Toshiba will keep a 67 percent stake in Monroeville, Pa.-based Westinghouse, which it bought from U.K.'s British Nuclear Fuels PLC last year for $4.2 billion.
The Shaw Group Inc. of the U.S. owns 20 percent of Westinghouse and Japanese heavy machinery maker IHI Corp. owns 3 percent.
