It is perhaps a
"dirty trick"
as Antoine Frérot says sharply.
But this is not a first.
In 2006, at the height of another violent battle, the steelmaker Arcelor, grappling with the hostile offer launched by Mittal, had housed the company Dofasco in a Dutch foundation.
“It's not a poison pill
,
”
Arcelor explained at the time,
“but Mittal will have to use its own assets, not Arcelor's ones, to resolve its antitrust problem and its financing problem”
.
It is therefore a reasoning very close to that of Arcelor at the time which led Suez to sanctuary its water activity in France on Wednesday.
Read also:
Veolia-Suez: the battle of the water giants turns into a trench war
But since the steel war, which ended in a friendly offer, French law has evolved and the leaders of Suez have fully seized upon it.
In 2014, the Florange law, carried by Arnaud Montebourg until his departure from the government, had strengthened the arsenal of French listed companies to defend themselves in the event of an unsolicited offer.
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