LONDON (AFP) — British electricity and gas supplier Centrica may decide to offer 4 billion pounds, as well as shares, for British Energy in order to woo the government in London, newspaper reports said on Monday.

Centrica announced a week ago that it would consider an all-shares merger with British Energy should Centrica and French utility group EDF fail in a joint all-cash bid for the nuclear power operator, which is 35 percent owned by the British government.
However the Financial Times said on Monday that Centrica was now looking at adding a cash portion of about 4 billion pounds (5.1 billion euros, 7.7 billion dollars) to its proposal to win over Britain’s Labor government.
The FT added: “Although Centrica does not have as much cash as EDF, it has relatively little debt on its balance sheet and a person close to the situation said ... it would be possible for the group to make a cash-and-shares offer for British Energy.”
The Times newspaper also ran the story on Monday.
Last month, EDF had a multi-billion-dollar bid for British Energy turned down, as some major shareholders felt the offer was too low.
EDF, Europe’s number one electricity producer, had been widely expected to confirm that a deal had been struck to buy British Energy, which has a market value of 12 billion pounds.
EDF’s all-cash bid had been aimed at the British government’s 35.2 percent stake in British Energy. Under takeover rules, any bid for the government stake would trigger an offer for the rest of group.