The CMA asks Veolia to sell three activities as part of the merger with Suez


(Update: comment from Veolia, details on disposals and stock market prices)

PARIS (Agefi-Dow Jones)–The British competition authority, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), announced on Thursday that Veolia must carry out three disposals in the United Kingdom and Europe because of the risks it has identified as part of the merger of the group of utilities with its competitor Suez.

The CMA “concluded that Veolia should sell substantial parts of the merged business”, namely the waste management services business and the industrial water operation and maintenance services of Suez in the UK as well as the Veolia’s European Mobile Water Services (MWS Europe) division, the authority said in a statement.

“These businesses represent almost all of the overlap between the competing businesses of Veolia and Suez in the UK,” the CMA said.

The Constable of Competition added that he ‘devr[ait] approve the acquirers of each business prior to the completion of each sale”.

Contacted by the agency Agefi-Dow Jones, a spokeswoman for Veolia indicated that the group considered the report of the CMA as a “green light subject to assignments” to the merger. Veolia has already announced in early August that it intends to sell Suez’s waste activities in the United Kingdom to asset manager Macquarie Asset Management, in order to respond to the concerns of the British competition authority. Suez, for its part, has signaled its interest in taking over these assets, under the same terms and conditions as those offered by Macquarie. Suez has a period of 30 days from receipt of the notification by Veolia to exercise or not its right of first refusal.

At the beginning of August, Veolia also signed an agreement to sell its MWS Europe mobile water services to the French sanitation and water distribution group Saur for a total amount of around 19 million euros. This sale is part of the remedies agreed with the European Commission and was initially announced last May.

The size of this activity is also described as “moderate” by Veolia, as is that of industrial water in the United Kingdom, which the CMA is also requesting to sell.

At 2:00 p.m., the Veolia share gained 0.3%, to 22.92 euros, while the CAC 40 index took 0.1%.

-Alice Doré, Agefi-Dow Jones; +33 (0)1 41 27 47 90; [email protected] ed: LBO – ECH

Agefi-Dow Jones The financial newswire

Dow Jones Newswires

August 25, 2022 08:00 ET (12:00 GMT)



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