Tokyo Electric Power Co. acquires equity interest in U1

The Tokyo Electric Power Company, Incorporated (TEPCO), along with Toshiba Corporation and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), announced a joint investment in Uranium One Inc. (U1), a major, Canadian-listed producer and marketer of uranium.

TEPCO, Toshiba and JBIC have agreed to subscribe to a new share issue of 117 million shares in U1, at a price of Cdn$2.30 per share, equal to approximately Cdn$270 million (about 20.2 billion yen) in total. Concurrently, TEPCO, Toshiba and JBIC have also signed a strategic relationship agreement (SRA) with U1, and a Uranium Offtake Agreement.

The full share issue will be taken up by Japan Uranium Management Inc. (JUMI), a special purpose entity established by the three Japanese companies in British Columbia, Canada. Once JUMI completes the transaction, U1's outstanding shares will total 586.61 million, and JUMI will have a holding of about 19.95 percent. TEPCO and Toshiba will each hold 40 percent of JUMI's shares, and JBIC will hold 20 percent.

In order to further deepen and develop their long-term strategic relationship with U1, the three Japanese companies intend to appoint two representatives to serve on U1's board, and to send other personnel to the company; establish a joint committee to discuss strategic issues; and evaluate opportunities to jointly develop uranium resources. The Japanese companies and U1 will together develop and execute detailed action plans based on the SRA.

TEPCO operates a large scale nuclear generation program in Japan, and pursues economically efficient means to optimise its uranium procurement, including diversification of procurement channels, and will continue to enhance its fuel procurement activities, especially in front-end domains.

Toshiba strives to take advantage of every opportunity to promote initiatives and programs to satisfy demand for uranium for the Group's utility customers on a global basis. BIC aims to support activities to secure uranium resources for Japan and to maintain and improve international competitiveness within the nuclear industry of Japan. From this perspective, JBIC supports this first-ever equity investment by Japanese companies in a major uranium company as a joint investor, and seeks to sustain U1's businesses by drawing on its own experience and capabilities, based on an existing relationship, to have dialogue directly with Kazakhstan where U1 has mining sites.