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18 December 2007
BNFL Agrees sale of nuclear decommissioning specialist Project Services
BNFL has today agreed to sell its specialist nuclear services business, Project Services, to VT Group plc. Mike Parker, BNFL’s Group CEO, said: “I am delighted that VT Group will be the new owners of Project Services as this achieves our objective of securing a good home for the business and, importantly, its people.
“The sale has generated additional value for our Shareholder over and above the £8.3 billion that BNFL has already returned to Government.”
Project Services employs around 750 highly skilled experts with experience across nuclear waste and decommissioning, reprocessing technology and design of new nuclear facilities. In its first two years of operation the business has secured work on civil nuclear sites in the UK, including Sellafield and Magnox reactor sites, and is also involved in work on behalf of the Ministry of Defence, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform and the Home Office.
The international nuclear services market presents the business with a major growth opportunity where it has already obtained a strategic foothold working for EDF in France, Rosatom in Russia and Japan Nuclear Fuels Ltd. The Russian programme is funded through the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) which also funds the Project Management Unit at Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant in Bulgaria. Project Services manages this key project for EBRD. Most recently the business has successfully moved into the rapidly growing market for new build of nuclear reactors, working with reactor vendors and major utilities.
It is expected that the sale will be completed early in the New Year. Rothschild acted as financial adviser to BNFL on the transaction and legal advice was provided by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.