EDF of France is set to sell its UK electricity networks business to Cheung Kong Infrastructure of Hong Kong for £5.8bn, 45 per cent more than the price originally suggested for the deal, according to a person close to the negotiations.

The state-controlled French electricity group is expected to announce the sale with its half-year results on Friday morning. The deal at a stroke reaches the €5bn target the French utility set for disposals by the end of 2011.

CKI, controlled by Li Ka-shing, the Hong Kong billionaire, outbid a consortium of Macquarie of Australia, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, and Canada Pension Plan.

EDF were unavailable for comment.

The sale was proposed under Pierre Gadonneix, the previous EDF group chief executive, and for months it was unclear whether Henri Proglio, who succeeded him last year, would go through with it.

The attractive price offered – well above the threshold of about £5bn suggested recently – appears to have convinced him.

CKI holds a 39 per cent stake in Hongkong Electric, the electricity supplier, and the two companies will be teaming up to run EDF Networks, as they have done for other energy assets in the UK, including Northern Gas Networks, a gas distribution business that was acquired in 2004.

The price achieved for EDF Networks, which represents a 27 per cent premium to the regulated asset value of the business, is a sign the market for European energy companies may be improving, and could encourage other companies with network assets in Britain, such as Eon of Germany and Iberdrola of Spain, to put their similar businesses up for sale.