PARIS: French nuclear group Areva on Tuesday said it was in exclusive negotiations with France's sovereign wealth fund FSI for the sale of its 26 percent stake in mining group Eramet.
The FSI said earlier this month it wanted to close the deal to buy the stake as quickly as possible after the French press reported that a New Caledonian mining group had made Areva an offer.
The FSI told Reuters it had looked at buying Areva's stake in Eramet two years ago, at a time when Eramet's shares were worth as much as three times their 94.95 euro closing price on Tuesday. Areva gave no detail on Tuesday on the timing of a deal or the price at which it could sell its stake.
Nickel and manganese miner Eramet currently has a market capitalisation of 2.5 billion euros ($3.27 billion), which would value Areva's stake at about 650 million euros.
Areva, Eramet's second-largest shareholder after the Duval family, has sought to sell non-core assets as part of a new strategic plan aimed at helping the nuclear reactor maker cope with lower demand after the Fukushima catastrophe in Japan.
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