The French government is preparing to sell up to 15 per cent of its nuclear champion to strategic partners in Asia, the Middle East and elsewhere in an effort to raise some €2bn to fund the group’s development.

Areva is expected to announce plans for a capital increase next week after a board meeting on Tuesday, convened to validate the group’s strategy and investment needs over the next three years.

Although the state-owned group may not announce the extent of the share sale while negotiations with strategic partners are still under way, the capital increase is expected to leave 25 per cent of the company in non-government hands.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Areva’s Japanese partner, is set to take a stake, according to people with knowledge of the situation. The government is also in discussions with sovereign wealth funds, thought to include Mubadala of Abu Dhabi, over their participation in a capital increase, which will be launched this year.

But Areva’s investment needs to 2012 are estimated at between €8bn and €10bn, excluding the €2bn cost of buying Germany’s Siemens out of the engineering joint venture Areva NP.

The group faces rising reactor orders and an urgent need to modernise its ageing French facilities.

Anne Lauvergeon, chief executive, will also on Tuesday launch the sale of the group’s transport and distribution subsidiary, which supplies equipment to power grid operators.

Analysts estimate that the business, acquired in 2004 from turbine maker Alstom for €900m, is today worth between €3.5bn and €5bn.

Ms Lauvergeon was initially strongly opposed to a sale of the transport and distribution business, arguing that it generated much-needed cash for a group faced with long investment cycles. The division generated sales of about €5bn last year and its profits kept Areva in the black after heavy provisions on its ground-breaking reactor project in Finland drove the nuclear business into loss.

However, Jean-Cyril Spinetta, the newly appointed chairman who last week completed a review of strategy and investment needs, has concluded that the business is not core, in line with the government’s view that Areva should focus on nuclear power.

Ms Lauvergeon will also confirm that Areva has begun selling its portfolio of stakes in other French companies, such as GdF-Suez and Eramet, to raise cash in the short term.