EDF is nearing a deal with private equity group KKR which it hopes could trump billionaire businessman Warren Buffett in his agreed $4.7bn takeover of Baltimore-based Constellation Energy.

Pierre Gadonneix, chief executive of the French electricity group, will meet KKR executives in the US this week to finalise details of a new assault on the company it had chosen as its bridgehead into North America, where it is looking to tap into the revival of civil nuclear power generation.