-Caveat Lector-
Begin forwarded message:
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: September 2, 2007 9:24:36 PM PDT
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: $100 Billion Merger in France Creates 3rd Largest Power
Company in the World
Sarkozy arm-twisting secures £61bn energy deal
David Gow in Brussels
The Guardian (UK), September 3, 2007
http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2161132,00.html
French president Nicolas Sarkozy will confirm today the €90bn
(£61bn) merger between energy groups Suez and Gaz de France,
creating the world's third-largest power company and a new French
global champion.
The two boards met in Paris last night to discuss final terms of
the long-delayed merger, first announced in early 2006, after Mr
Sarkozy brokered a breakthrough in the stalled deal late last week.
Suez is expected to spin off on the stock exchange the bulk of its
environment business, primarily water and waste management, while
retaining a 35% stake. Gérard Mestrallet, chief executive, had long
resisted such an arrangement but agreed at the last minute after
considerable arm-twisting by Mr Sarkozy. Sources said he had
underestimated the "hyperpresident's" iron will, but Suez directors
could still unravel the highly political arrangement.
The environment business, built around the former Lyonnaise des
Eaux and including substantial UK assets, is worth €20bn and
accounts for around a quarter of Suez's €45bn annual turnover. It
helped boost the group's first-half pre-tax earnings by more than
10% to €4.1bn.
The proposed spin-off would enable the French state to retain a 34%
stake in GDF-Suez. It currently owns 79.8% of GDF but has no
holding in Suez. French law limits the state's holding in the
combined group at about third. A surge in Suez's market value to
€54bn, compared with GDF's €36bn, would have cut the state's
holding to 31% without the spin-off.
Mr Sarkozy, rebuffed by Mr Mestrallet as late as Thursday last
week, said the same day: "I have proposed to Suez that it merge its
energy business with GDF ... that presumes that Suez makes a
strategic choice by specialising in energy." The new group would
rank third in the world behind Russia's Gazprom and France's EDF,
supplier to a fifth of Britain's gas and electricity customers.
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