French nuclear group Areva (CEI.FR) would have to cut investment if it can't increase its capital, Chief Executive Anne Lauvergeon is cited as saying in an interview with Le Monde published Thursday.
"We are not in a perilous situation, but Areva can't leave its financial position to deteriorate," Lauvergeon is cited as saying by the French daily.
"We can sell non-strategic assets, but if there is no capital increase, we will be obliged to review our investment downwards," she says.
When asked if a tie-up with power and transport engineering company Alstom SA (ALO.FR) is out of the question, Lauvergeon says the idea has been around for the last six years and said: "If it was a good idea, we would know it!"
Lauvergeon also says Alstom hasn't contacted her directly to express an interest in buying Areva's transmission and distribution unit, which Alstom sold to Areva in 2004.