Exclusive-Veolia, Suez $14.7 billion tie-up to win EU antitrust nod, sources say

By Foo Yun Chee and Gwénaëlle Barzic

BRUSSELS/PARIS (Reuters) – French waste and water management companies Veolia and Suez are set to secure EU antitrust approval for their 13-billion-euro tie-up ($14.7 billion) which will help them compete with Chinese rivals, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

The deal, clinched in April, followed a months-long bitter spat which included a court clash and Suez setting up a foundation to ring-fence its French water business from Veolia, later abandoned after the two reached an agreement.

To allay European Commission competition concerns, the companies will spin off Suez’s French water and waste activities and some international assets into a new entity called “New Suez”.

New Suez is now being reviewed by the EU competition enforcer as a simplified merger deal, meaning approval is all but a foregone conclusion.

Additional remedies include the sale of some Veolia small industrial water treatment assets and mobile units to assist customers as well as Suez’s assets in the field of industrial hazardous waste treatment, the sources said.

The Commission, which is scheduled to decide by Dec. 14 declined to comment.

(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee and Gwenaelle Barzic;Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)