(Reuters) -British Gas owner Centrica is set to take a 15% stake in the planned Sizewell C nuclear plant in southeast England, the Financial Times newspaper reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the discussions.

If confirmed, the move will please the UK government, which is keen to secure funding for a project key to its energy needs and emissions reduction targets.

Reuters could not immediately confirm the report.

A spokesperson for Centrica said the company would not comment on speculation about M&A or investments.

All sides are keen to reach a final investment decision on the project before parliament's recess on July 21, the newspaper reported.

Canada's Brookfield Asset Management is still in talks about an investment in Sizewell C and could be prepared to take a larger stake than Centrica, the report said.

Brookfield Asset Management did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment outside regular business hours.

INCREASED STAKE

The government this month announced it would invest a further 14.2 billion pounds ($19.25 billion) to build the Sizewell C nuclear plant, taking its commitment to 17.8 billion pounds, but that left about 20 billion still to source.

China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN) was meant to develop the Sizewell C project alongside France's EDF but the UK government bought out the Chinese firm's stake in 2022 amid security concerns.

That cost taxpayers 700 million pounds as the government took a full 50% stake.

Its stake stood at 83.8% at the end of 2024, with EDF holding the remaining 16.2%, the firm's results showed. EDF's stake is expected to decrease following the government's additional investment announced this month.

Centrica CEO Chris O'Shea has previously said the company was interested in taking a stake in Sizewell C. It already owns a 20% stake in Britain's existing nuclear fleet, which is operated by EDF.

($1 = 0.7281 pounds)

(Reporting by Preetika Parashuraman in Bengaluru and Susanna Twidale in London; editing by Eileen Soren, Mrigank Dhaniwala and Jason Neely)