Slaughter and May, Linklaters, DLA Piper and Freshfields have taken lead roles as the UK confirms a long-awaited £38bn deal with a range of private investors to build the Sizewell C nuclear power plant.
Set to be only the second nuclear power plant built in the UK in a generation, after construction on Hinkley Point C began in 2017, Sizewell C is expected to supply low-carbon electricity to six million homes for at least 60 years, according to the project’s website.
The deal will see the UK government take a 45% equity stake, with the remainder split between Centrica (15%), EDF (12.5%), Amber Infrastructure (7.6%) and Canadian investors, La Caisse (20%).
Slaughters is advising Centrica, which has committed £1.3bn in funding. Energy and infrastructure partners Daniel Mewton and Hywel Davies are leading with support from tax partner Sarah Osprey.
DLA Piper is advising the consortium of Amber Infrastructure and La Caisse. The team was led by finance partner Derwin Jenkinson and corporate partner Steven Bryan, who both joined DLA last February after leaving Paul Hastings in 2023. Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer is also advising La Caisse on the deal with the team being led by global co-head of infrastructure Gavin Williams, supported by partners Silke Goldberg, Emma Stones and Steven Dalton.
Freshfields has been advising EDF on the matter for four years. The core deal team led by partners Edward Cole, who specialises in cross-border transactions, often in regulated sectors, and Vanessa Jakovich, who serves as compliance and regulation co-lead in the firm’s global ESG risk and advisory group.
The Linklaters team, which has been advising the government on the project since 2018, is led by the firm’s UK government lead Charlotte Morgan, with support from energy and infrastructure partners Maryam Adamji and Stephen Le Vesconte.
‘We are proud to have supported the UK Government on this significant step for both domestic energy security and the UK’s net zero journey’, Morgan said in a statement.
‘We are delighted to have contributed to developing the legal and regulatory structures to make this pivotal investment a reality and to help secure a low carbon energy future,’ she added.
Addleshaw Goddard is advising the UK National Wealth Fund on the debt financing of up to £36.55bn. Rory Connor and Richard Goodfellow are leading the cross practice team.
From Slaughters, Mewton reiterated the importance of the deal for the UK’s infrastructure: ‘This is a landmark transaction for the UK, ensuring secure, low carbon power for the next 60 years. Nuclear power – large scale and small modular reactors – is reemerging as a key component of the energy mix across Europe, and this transaction is an important benchmark for the wider market.’
UK chancellor Rachel Reeves described the investment as a ‘powerful endorsement of the UK as the best place to do business and as a global hub for nuclear energy.’
She added: ‘Delivering next generation, publicly-owned clean power is vital to our energy security and growth, which is why we backed Sizewell C. This investment will create thousands of good quality jobs and boost the local economy as we deliver on our Plan for Change.’
Sizewell C is set to be the first nuclear power project in the UK to be financed under the Regulated Asset Base (RAB) model. The RAB model allows infrastructure projects to begin collecting revenues from consumers during construction, lowering the cost of capital by sharing risk between investors and electricity bill payers.
