Areva Selling Assets, CEO Under Scrutiny

French state-controlled nuclear group Areva will further cut back its investment budget and sell more assets to shore up its balance sheet, and the position of Chief Executive Luc Oursel is under threat, French daily Les Echos said on its website on Monday.

The paper said the firm's supervisory board will meet on Tuesday and propose cutting back Areva's annual investment budget by another 100 million to 150 million euros ($125.68-$188.52 million) from 2015 and selling assets worth 500 million to 600 million euros.

The moves are meant to stave off a credit rating downgrade by Standard & Poor's, which said last month it was considering lowering Areva's debt rating by one notch to non-investment grade.

The paper also said supervisory board Chairman Pierre Blayau was calling on the government and state nuclear agency CEA - which together own 87 percent of Areva - to replace Oursel with Chief Operating Officer Philippe Knoche.

Areva declined to comment on the report.

Reporting by Geert De Clercq and Benjamin Mallet