PARIS (Agefi-Dow Jones)–Veolia announced on Thursday that it is proposing to divest all of Suez’s waste business in the UK in order to obtain the green light from the British competition authority, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), bringing together the two utility groups.
“This radical decision is likely to respond effectively to the intransigence of the CMA, whose analysis of the markets concerned is disputed by Veolia and deplores the lack of sharing of the issues related to our sectors of activity”, indicated Veolia in a communicated.
The CMA said in May that it had “provisionally found” that the acquisition of the utility group Suez by its rival Veolia presented risks for competition in the United Kingdom. This operation “would result in a loss of competition in the provision of several waste and water management services in the United Kingdom”, had then specified the CMA.
“We regret that the CMA analysis does not allow the group to realize the full potential of ecological transformation in the United Kingdom, but it does not reduce our commitment in this territory”, underlined Veolia Thursday.
The CMA is the only competition authority “in the world not to have yet pronounced, for more than 16 months, on the effects of the merger on the British market”, recalled the group. The CMA’s final report is expected on July 17.
“These disposals will, on the other hand, free up significant capacity to finance new developments, particularly in the energy sector, which will allow the group to regain a balanced portfolio of activities between water, energy and waste. “, underlined Veolia.
-Alice Doré, Agefi-Dow Jones; +33 (0)1 41 27 47 90; [email protected] ed: VLV
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June 16, 2022 02:26 ET (06:26 GMT)