French water management company Suez SA on Sunday received an acquisition offer from investment firms Ardian SAS and Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) as it fights off a bid from archrival Veolia Environment SA.
Months of acrimonious wrangling between the two massive French companies have seen Veolia maneuver to become Suez’s main shareholder after purchasing a 29.9 percent stake.
However, Ardian is now offering 18 euros per share — matching another earlier Veolia offer that valued the whole company at 11.3 billion euros (US$13.64 billion).
Suez’s board of directors said it had received a “letter of intent from Ardian and GIP, aiming to allow a friendly and rapid solution to the situation created by the Veolia offer.”
The fresh proposal aims to guarantee the sustainability of the two French giants of water and waste by offering a way out.
Suez chief executive Bertrand Camus said the Ardian offer would preserve jobs and maintain “essential competition” within France.
The proposal “has the advantage of ticking a lot of boxes,” he said in a statement.
ENGIE DEAL
Last year, commodities giant Veolia secured a deal to buy almost 30 percent of Suez from Engie SA, an energy player in which the French state owns a 22 percent stake — despite the government voting against the sale.
Veolia’s takeover had the potential to create a global giant supplying power generation, waste management and water services to municipalities worldwide.
In the wake of the Ardian-GIP proposal, Veolia refused to withdraw and said that it has no intention of selling its 29.9 percent holding — acquired in October last year — and repeated that chief executive Antoine Frerot is prepared to discuss his company’s project for Suez.
“Any project which would directly or indirectly involve the sale by Veolia of its stake in Suez, or other transfers distorting the industrial project that the group is carrying, is considered hostile by Veolia,” the company said in a statement.
However, Mathias Burghardt, head of Ardian’s infrastructure business, told reporters that the offer was “not a counter-takeover.”
“We’ll back a solution that both [Veolia and Suez] parties must find,” he said.
The French government, which has previously pushed for a friendly deal with Veolia and said any alternative solutions should maintain French control over Suez, has not yet reacted to Ardian and GIP’s proposal.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
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