Shareholders and France’s political class are clearly relieved. Waste-and-water utilities Veolia Environnement SA and Suez SA have reached a friendly $15 billion conclusion to their protracted takeover war. Yet the hostility previously on display is likely to leave deep scars, not least given the difficulties of bringing arch-rivals under the same operational roof.
Veolia’s sweetened bid of 20.50 euros ($24.43) per share for the 70% of Suez it doesn’t own proposes to create a French champion with 37 billion euros in annual revenue. It’s an acknowledgment that the increasingly bitter grudge match wasn’t helping anyone.
