BRITISH Energy chairman John Robb yesterday said he would step down after the nuclear generator's new chief executive, Peter Hollins, 50, had settled in and the company had found uses for its cash pile, writes Ian McConnell.
Robb, apparently giving some clue about the timescale of Edinburgh-based British
Energy's plans to acquire nuclear stations in Canada and the United States, said: ''I think we are talking a minimum of two years (before I step down).''
Robb, an ardent supporter of British Energy's headquarters remaining in Scotland as promised when it was formed by Scottish Nuclear and Nuclear Electric's merger, was speaking after plant-hire group Hewden Stuart's annual meeting in
Glasgow.
He succeeds Sandy Findlay as chairman of Hewden Stuart on December 31.
British Energy's former chief executive, Robert Hawley, left last summer at the age of 60 when he learned he was not in line to succeed Robb as
chairman.
Robb had to combine the roles of chief executive and chairman until Hollins, who had a successful career at senior level with ICI and was latterly in charge of the polymers division of European Vinyls Corporation, arrived in February. European Vinyls Corporation was a joint venture between ICI and Enichem which floated on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange in 1994.
British Energy outlined plans last month to achieve control of all 20 nuclear reactors in the Canadian province of Ontario as part of a ''public-private partnership'' embracing the provincial government, the US electricity generator PECO Energy and Canadian private sector investors and operating under the name CanaGen
Energy.
British Energy's vice-chairman, Robin Jeffrey, said it would be ''some months'' before it submitted a formal proposal to the Canadian authorities.
The Ontario government is in the process of privatising the state electricity company
OntarioHydro, and British Energy, with limited opportunities for expansion at home, is keen to take over the running of its nuclear power stations.
British Energy and Philadelphia-based PECO have already formed a separate joint venture to buy and operate second-hand nuclear power plants on the Eastern Seaboard of the US.
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