EDF's Hinkley Point investment decision could be months away-source

PARIS, Oct (HKSE: 3366-OL.HK - news) 2 (Reuters) - French state-controlled utility EDF (Hanover: E2F.HA - news) hopes to sign a commercial agreement with its Chinese partners to build two nuclear reactors in Hinkley Point, Britain in October, but a final investment decision on the project could take a few more weeks or months after that, an industrial source told Reuters.

The source, confirming a report in French financial daily Les Echos, said Chinese President Xi Jinping's planned Oct. 20-23 visit to Britain would provide a "window of opportunity" for EDF (Paris: FR0010242511 - news) to finalise commercial agreements with its partners, Chinese utilities CGN and CNNC.

"Once that is done, the final investment decision is the logical consequence," the source said. (Reporting by Geert De Clercq; editing by Jason Neely)