TROUBLED nuclear power group British Energy (BE) is delisting from the stock market to stop rebel shareholders derailing its rescue package.

BE said it had applied to the UK Listing Authority and the London Stock Exchange to end the listing and trading of its ordinary and A-class shares.

The group, which employs 500 people at Hartlepool Power Station, said it was reluctant to make the move, but said it was essential to protect the company.

Institutional investors Polygon Investment Partners and Brandes Investment Partners have called for a meeting with BE to prevent it from delisting.

They said the proposed UK Government-backed £5bn restructuring deal, which won European Commission approval on Wednesday, will leave them with an inadequate stake in the company.

But heavily-indebted BE said the deal, under which creditors would own the bulk of the company following a debt-for-equity swap, leaving shareholders with a 2.5 per cent stake, is the only option left open to it.

It has warned it would face administration if shareholders succeeded in derailing the package, which would leave investors with nothing.

If investors approve the deal, BE will not have had to delist its shares. But the company's creditors are understood to have demanded the delisting to ensure shareholders cannot block the deal.

BE has already begun legal action against US hedge fund Polygon to prevent it calling an extraordinary meeting to table its proposed resolutions.

BE's biggest plant is at Hartlepool, with others at Heysham, Lancashire; Hinkley Point, Somerset; Hunterston, Ayrshire; Dungeness, Kent; Sizewell, Suffolk and Torness, East Lothian. It also operates the Drax coal-fired plant at Selby, North Yorkshire.