Engineering groups Alstom and Schneider said on Thursday they might launch a joint bid for the Transmission and Distribution business being sold by Areva, France's state-controlled nuclear power giant.

"Schneider Electric and Alstom envisage submitting a joint offer" for the T&D operations, the two companies said in a statement.

Ultimately, Alstom could end up with the transmission assets and Schneider the distribution activities, they said.

They gave no details of what price they might offer for the Areva business, which analysts have valued at 3.0-5.0 billion euros (4.2-6.0 billion dollars).

Areva announced in June that it was opening its capital to new investors and would sell assets to raise money for massive investments in new nuclear technology.