Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy: No Agreement On Sales Tie-Up With GE

TOKYO (AP) -Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is not planning talks with General Electric aimed at the U.S. company selling Mitsubishi nuclear reactor technology in the United States, a spokesman for the Japanese company said Tuesday in response to multiple news reports.

Several published reports on Tuesday said that Mitsubishi President Kazuo Tsukuda and Chairman Takashi Nishioka agreed to enter negotiations during a recent meeting in Tokyo with GE's Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Immelt.

An official with Daiya PR Co., which handles Mitsubishi's media relations, denied the executives agreed to discuss a sales tie-up.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity as per Daiya company policy, said the executives' talks were broad, but he declined to elaborate or say when the talks took place.

According to the Nihon Keizai, which did not identify its sources, the parties were to discuss the possibility of Connecticut-based General Electric selling Mitsubishi's pressurized-water reactors in the United States.

Mitsubishi and GE both made unsuccessful attempts to acquire U.S. nuclear plant builder Westinghouse Electric Co. from British Nuclear Fuels PLC. The winning bidder, Japanese electronics maker Toshiba Corp., completed its acquisition of Westinghouse earlier this year and now owns 77 percent of the U.S. Company.

The Toshiba deal left Mitsubishi, which among other things produces aircraft, ships, air-conditioners and power plants, in search of a new U.S. partner, the Nihon Keizai said. Mitsubishi's first nuclear plants in Japan in the 1960s were based on technology from Westinghouse.