Engie has agreed to sell to Veolia its stake in the Suez group, which Veolia wants to buy.
A new episode in the battle between the two flagships of water and waste management is now opening, with an agreement to be found between the two groups.
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Veolia wins a battle against Suez: majority shareholder of the latter, Engie decided on Monday evening to sell almost all of its stake to it and the Veolia group now holds nearly 30% of the capital of Suez, for nearly three and a half billion euros. euros.
But if Veolia and Suez have addressed the names of birds through the media, they will now have to truly discuss and find an agreement on a common project.
Veolia has also announced its intention to resume discussions on Tuesday.
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The group, eager "to acquire control of Suez", has made some progress in recent days, for example by committing to sell more assets than expected internationally.
In total, asset disposals would be "of the order of 5 billion euros (including 2.2 billion euros from Eau France)", specifies Veolia.
"Not easy to find an agreement"
At Suez, on the other hand, we are always very happy.
"It will not be easy to find this agreement", we recognize internally.
If they succeed, Veolia will launch an offer for the rest of the capital that it does not yet hold.
At that time, he will notably sell the "water" division to a French investment fund, Meridiam.
There are therefore still several players in France in this water market and we will also have to merge Veolia and the rest of Suez, which will not be an easy task.
At Veolia, we want to believe that the ambition to create a world number 1 and to fight against real foreign competitors will be enough to boost the new group.
In a statement released on Tuesday, the Suez group again denounced "unprecedented and irregular conditions" and a "hostile" operation.
The operation "will not work" without an agreement between the two groups, believes Bruno Le Maire.