UPDATE 1-Areva eyeing closer ties with industrial partners

* Capital hike to boost Areva ties with industrial partners

* Mitsubishi among these groups - Areva CEO tells RTL radio

* Areva to invest 10 billion euros over next three years

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PARIS, July 1 (Reuters) - Areva's planned capital raising could allow the French state-owned nuclear reactor supplier to forge closer ties with strategic and industrial partners, including Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (7011.T), its CEO said.

Proceeds from the capital raising will help the financing needs of Areva, which wants to invest 10 billion euros ($14.1 billion) over the next three years, Anne Lauvergeon told French RTL radio on Wednesday.

"We will discuss with partners that I will not name today ... Our idea is to strengthen industrial and strategic alliances that we have with a certain number of groups around the world," she said.

"Mitsubushi is one of these groups, we are building a reactor together," Lauvergeon said when asked if closer ties with the Japanese company were possible.

"We have many common projects and there is also another sort of partners that in some countries may allow us to improve our positions in these countries," she said.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) said on Friday it would consider buying a stake in Areva if it received such an offer from the French government. [ID:nTFA006392] Sources familiar with the matter have told Reuters that Areva could also raise capital from Middle Eastern sovereign funds.

The capital raising will also be opened to holders of investment certificates, which trade on the Paris stock market and represent 4 percent of Areva's capital, the group has said.

Under the terms of a long-awaited plan to finance its development needs around the world, Areva said on Tuesday it would also sell minority stakes it holds in mining group Eramet (ERMT.PA) and chip maker STMicroelectronics (STM.PA).

The second key element of Areva's financing plan will be the sale of its power Transmission and Distribution (T&D) unit, which the board agreed to put up for sale. [ID:nLU456060 ]

Lauvergeon told RTL Radio there would be a "minimum price" set for the unit. She did not elaborate. (Reporting by Dominique Vidalon; Editing by Dan Lalor) ($1 = 0.7077 euro)