A consortium led by Hong Kong’s richest man Li Ka-shing has made a 9.0-billion-dollar “irrevocable” offer to take over the British power distribution network of French electricity giant EDF, the French company said Friday.

If completed, the deal would be the biggest by a Hong Kong entity in Britain.

EDF Energy, the largest electricity supplier in Britain, is owned by EDF, the state controlled French giant which said in October it had put its three distribution grids up for sale as it tries to reduce debt. EDF group is Europe’s biggest electricity producer.