The Paris Court of Appeal confirmed the decision of the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) of September 24.
Veolia was therefore not in a pre-offer situation when the company bought from Engie a 29.9% stake in the capital of its competitor Suez.
The latter believed that Veolia's project, the purchase of Engie's stake in Suez followed by a public offer, was a sufficiently precise arrangement to qualify it as a pre-offer.
The AMF had defeated this interpretation in its decision of September 24, considering that the offer was far from being finalized.
Suez had brought the case before the Paris Court of Appeal, which once again ruled in favor of Veolia.
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This is a big blow for Suez, because a different opinion would have simply canceled the transaction to sell the Suez securities.
This is the second major victory for Veolia since the start of the month.
On February 3, the Nanterre commercial court ruled that Veolia did not have to carry out an information-consultation procedure with Suez employees.
This allowed the group led by Antoine Frérot to recover its voting rights, even if they remain supervised by the competition authorities.
And to launch his takeover bid on Sunday February 7.
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For his part, Bruno Le Maire, the Minister of the Economy, strongly opposed to an unsolicited offer from Veolia, declared himself in favor of the appointment of a mediator to try to put an end to this stock market battle between the two French giants of environmental services.
Suez immediately declared himself in favor of this principle, explaining that Bertrand Camus, its managing director, had proposed a similar principle.
Veolia has not commented.
