Deals
How France’s Warring Water Giants Stepped Back From Brink
- After long battle, Veolia to buy Suez at $15 billion valuation
- Cool heads prevailed after bitter dispute in boardroom, courts
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The rare spectacle of a hostile takeover battle between two of France’s largest companies has come to a sudden end.
After many months of bitter rhetoric, legal tussles, and accusations of bad faith or sabotage, the cooler heads who had been working quietly behind the scenes finally engineered a compromise. Suez SA agreed to be acquired by Veolia Environnement SA at a 13 billion-euro ($15 billion) valuation, creating a global giant in waste and water services.