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Takeover of Suez by Veolia: "The price of water will not increase"

2020-09-05T16:12:24.201Z


In the event of Suez being bought out by Veolia, the Meridiam fund will take over the water activity of Suez in France. Its president, Thierry Déau, leaves the sil


In the plan to buy Suez by Veolia, the water activity in France is at the heart of the discussions.

Indeed, the two players are the leaders of the national market.

To prevent its project from being retested by the Competition Authority, Veolia therefore proposes to resell the Suez water activity, which serves 8 million French people, with its 11,000 employees, to a French fund unknown to the general public, Meridiam .

The company, created in 2005 and which manages 8 billion euros of assets, invests in infrastructures all over the planet such as La Guardia airport in New York, the tunnel of the port of Miami, 3000 km of road in Spain, four solar power plants in Senegal, schools and nurseries in Finland and a British university.

In France, Meridiam is involved in the LGV Tours-Bordeaux line and the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines velodrome.

Its founding president, Thierry Déau, a graduate of Ponts et Chaussées, is now defending the plan to buy out the Suez water activity.

Why do you want to invest in drinking water for the French?

THIERRY DÉAU.

We are a company with a mission around climate, biodiversity, clean energy.

Water is a major part of Meridiam's missions.

Having an industrial tool like Suez Eau France is therefore important for us.

This is an opportunity, because water is perhaps the most important resource when you think about climate change.

You do not manage any water distribution system.

How are you entitled to become the second private player in the French market?

Because we have the financial and industrial resources to integrate Suez Eau France and we know how to support French communities.

We work with dozens of them, both regions, inter-municipal authorities, town halls on many subjects related to services.

This ranges from anaerobic digestion to electric charging stations.

We manage this every day.

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That an investment fund manages the water of millions of French people scares some.

You understand ?

We are not an investment fund, but an industrial investor.

Yet you are a fund that invests!

It is even the term used by the Managing Director of Suez, Bertrand Camus ...

We are no more an investment fund than the investors in Suez on the stock market - who enter and leave the company's capital every day - are industrial investors.

On the contrary: we do not have quarterly results constraints which will mean that we will slow down investment for local communities.

We are able to commit ourselves over thirty years within Suez.

What, moreover, Engie did not do since they decided to sell

(Editor's note: Engie owns 32% of Suez).

What bothers you about the term “investment fund”?

Are you afraid of appearing to be a financial greedy for profitability?

This is the somewhat caricatural image that we tend to convey in France.

It is not always wrong, but it is not who we are.

Since our creation in 2005, we have never sold an asset.

I am an engineer who invests.

With Meridiam, it is a minimum twenty-five-year commitment with all the necessary means to develop on an industrial level.

Two years ago, you tried in vain to buy Saur, number three on the French market.

What did you miss at the time?

What more do you have today?

We had proposed to recapitalize the company to the tune of 200 million euros, because we thought that its debt was not sustainable.

But the sellers of the time preferred to make another choice and go with the money.

Can you certify that the price of water will not increase in the event of a buyout?

Yes.

Why ?

Because the competition will prevent it.

And that we are going to put all the resources into Suez Eau France to be a credible competitor against Veolia.

If we are allied with Antoine Frérot

(Editor's note: CEO of Veolia)

to bring a solution today in the takeover of Suez, once everything is signed, we will be the best enemies on the water market in France.

“We invest more than 1 billion per year with French communities,” says Thierry Déau.

LP / Arnaud Journois  

It's baroque: you are allied with Veolia so that it sells you a part of Suez so that you can then be its competitor!

This type of editing gives the impression that something is hidden from us ...

Not at all.

There is a competition authority more powerful than Antoine Frérot which, in any case, would have forced him to sell Suez France.

He simply anticipated this decision by finding a suitable investor, that is to say us.

There is no wolf, I assure you!

You do not have the financial standing of Suez.

How can you compete with number one Veolia on large tenders?

Do you know how much Suez is investing in France today?

Not a lot.

We invest more than 1 billion per year in our current contracts with French communities.

You can call Xavier Bertrand

(Editor's note: LR president of the Hauts de France region)

: for several years we have been building the extension of the port of Calais which will soon open.

It was an investment of 600 million euros, we had no problem.

We have the necessary financial resources and the banking partners.

If we did not have this credibility, why would the European Investment Bank be involved in almost 40% of our projects in Europe?

What is your project then?

Suez Eau France's innovation must absolutely be accelerated if we want to modernize the network.

Not just for productivity gains.

It is also fundamental for transparency vis-à-vis elected officials.

Why have the state-owned companies developed over the past twenty years?

Because there was a loss of confidence from local communities.

They did not have a clear view of what exactly was being done.

Thanks to innovation and digitalization, we can increase this trust capital.

Do you guarantee that you will not cut any jobs at Suez Eau France?

It's better than that: not only do I guarantee it, but I think we will develop employment.

We know this speech.

By buying Alstom Energie, General Electric had promised the same thing.

Finally, they cut positions ...

You cannot invest massively without employing more people.

We cannot promote innovation without increasing the skills of employees.

I am not telling you this to please you, I am explaining the consequences of our project on employment.

Are you ready to make a written commitment with the state on employment?

Of course !

Source: leparis

All business articles on 2020-09-05

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