Toshiba Corp Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Hisao Tanaka said on Thursday that the Japanese tech giant was still in talks to acquire a stake in Britain-based nuclear group NuGen.

Despite Iberdrola SA's announcement this week that it had sold 50% of its NuGen stake Toshiba, Tanaka said they have not yet reached a deal, a Reuters report read.

According to Tanaka, they expect to reach a deal by as early as January. He reiterated that his firm wanted a majority stake in the nuclear consortium. The said project is set to be established at a site in Sellafield, which is on the northwest coast of England. The deal would require Toshiba to purchase a portion of the stake held by GDF Suez, the joint venture partner of Iberdrola, the report detailed.

In addition, Toshiba said it wanted GDF Suez to retain partial ownership of the nuclear project. The Japanese firm wanted GDF to become the project's operator eventually, Reuters said in its report.