Drax Group, owner of Europe's biggest coal-fired power station, said yesterday that it planned to list on the London Stock Exchange on December 15.

It added that trading by the Yorkshire power station was in line with expectations and full-year operating profit was likely to be about £279m.

The group has received bid approaches from three consortia - Constellation Energy and Perry Capital of the US; Apollo, Texas Pacific and TowerBrook of the US; and International Power of the UK and Mitsui of Japan.

Drax has rejected these bids as too low. If a satisfactory bid is not received, Drax will press ahead with its listing. Rebecca Bream