Slaughter and May is advising Centrica plc on its agreement to acquire a 15% equity stake in Sizewell C (Holdings) Limited (“Sizewell C”), with committed construction funding of £1.3 billion. Centrica will jointly own Sizewell C alongside HM Government (44.9%), La Caisse (20%), Électricité de France SA (12.5%) and Amber Infrastructure Group (7.6%, with an option to acquire a further 2.4% from HM Government exercisable within 24 months of Revenue Commencement).
Sizewell C is a new 3.2GW nuclear power station under construction in Suffolk, in the South East of the UK. Once operational, Sizewell C will generate enough reliable, affordable sustainable electricity equivalent to approximately 7% of the UK’s current demand. The project will have two European Pressurised Reactors and has been significantly de-risked through design learnings from Hinkley Point C. It will support 10,000 jobs at peak construction and thousands more across the nationwide supply chain, as well as creating 1,500 apprenticeships during construction, and provide at least 60 years of electricity generation to power six million of today’s homes. Sizewell C benefits from a unique regulatory framework covering the entire construction and operations period, with long-term UK government commitment and cross-party political support. Our investment will allow Sizewell C to contribute to the UK’s baseload power generation, support the UK’s net zero ambitions, and help maintain grid stability as more intermittent renewable generation is added to the energy mix.
Today’s announcement by HMG and Centrica is the culmination of an equity raise process which Centrica became involved in over two years ago. Over this period Centrica (advised by Slaughter and May throughout) worked with HMG to help shape the regulatory framework and contractual investment package for Sizewell C in order to enable the revival of private investment in large-scale nuclear power projects in the UK.
Slaughter and May advised Centrica on all aspects of this landmark investment, including on the regulatory documents and government support package for Sizewell C, the shareholders’ arrangements, the project level financing, the offtake arrangements between Sizewell C and Centrica, competition aspects of Centrica’s investment, and legal due diligence on the project.
Centrica’s press release can be found here.
HM Government’s press release can be found here.
Madeline Dearman / Trainee