Insight - France’s corporate giants stop warring

A worker beside a Suez SA garbage truck in Paris, France, on Monday, March 1,2021.

THE rare spectacle of a hostile takeover battle between two of France’s largest companies has come to a sudden end.

After many months of bitter rhetoric, legal tussles, and accusations of bad faith or sabotage, the cooler heads who had been working quietly behind the scenes finally engineered a compromise. Suez SA agreed to be acquired by Veolia Environnement SA at a €13bil (US$15bil or RM62bil) valuation, creating a global giant in waste and water services.