French waste and water management corporation Veolia suffered a setback last week in its attempt to take over the Suez Group, another French conglomerate in the same business.
In dueling press releases last Thursday and Friday, neither multinational corporation mentioned the effects of this takeover attempt will have on either’s North American operations, which make up a small fraction of their worldwide holdings. In 2017, Veolia paid $350 million to acquire nuclear waste cleanup technology firm Kurion of Palo Alto, Calif., which became part of Veolia Nuclear Solutions in 2018.
Last October, Veolia bought 29.9% of Suez Group’s stock, Then on Feb. 8, Veolia offered to buy the remaining 70.1% at €18 a share. That translated to an €11-billion offer, or $13.2 billion.
Last Wednesday, the Suez Group’s board of directors unanimously rejected the bid, saying the stock was worth more and Veolia did not guarantee that Suez employees would not be laid off. The Suez Group publicly announced that rejection on Friday.
Meanwhile on Thursday Veolia announced it is bullish on acquiring Suez, not mentioning Suez’s rejection the day before. Veolia’s press release said no Suez employees in France would be terminated, but did not mention workers outside of France.
“The new combined entity will be a better partner to all clients, municipalities and industrial clients, enabling them to fulfill their environmental objectives more rapidly. … By combining the very strong competencies of Suez and Veolia, this transaction will significantly accelerate the development of the new entity facing growing competition, and enable the sector to tackle the environmental challenges of the 21st century,” Veolia’s press release said.
For 2020, Veolia announced revenues of €26.01 billion ($31.3 billion), up a little from 2019’s revenue of €27.189 billion ($32.7 billion). Veolia recorded earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of €1.275 billion ($1.35 billion) in 2020, down from €1.73 billion ($2.1 billion) in 2019.
