Chinese companies competing for the Horizon nuclear project are unlikely to end up with a majority stake in any winning consortium, in a bid to allay concerns about Beijing gaining control of one of the UK’s biggest reactor programmes.

Chinese nuclear companies have joined groups hoping to take ownership of the project, which was put up for sale earlier this year by its joint owners, German utilities EonAnd RWE. The deal represents a test for big Chinese investment in UK infrastructure projects given the sensitivities surrounding the nuclear industry.

Several people familiar with the sale process said UK officials had signalled a preference for the two competing consortiums’ Chinese partners to be minority investors in the project. Restricting their stakes could be difficult, however, particularly as the billions of pounds in funding needed to build the plant would be most likely to come from Chinese lenders.