Veolia raises Suez stake to close to 96 per cent

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In its reopened public cash tender offer, French environmental group Veolia has raised its stake in competitor Suez to 95.95 per cent of the share capital and voting rights. The group announced the provisional result determined by the French financial markets authority AMF after the offer's close on 27 January. Veolia confirmed that as soon as the AMF has published the tender offer's final result, it will proceed with the mandatory "squeeze out" of Suez's remaining minority shareholders by 18 February.

The shareholders are to receive a compensation of €19.85 per share, the same price Veolia has offered in the public tender. This corresponds to around €8.75bn for the 70.1 per cent of Suez shares that Veolia did not own before the bid was opened. Suez's second largest shareholder was the investment holding of Spanish bank La Caixa, which owned 5.9 per cent at the end of 2020. The third largest block of shares was held by Suez employees, who owned 5.6 per cent after completion of an employee shareholder programme in March 2021.

Veolia confirmed that Suez’s shares are to be delisted from the Euronext Paris and Euronext Brussels stock exchanges at the close of the date of implementation of the mandatory squeeze-out. In an earlier announcement this January, Veolia had forecast that completion of its take-over of Suez and the sale of the "New Suez" would take place in the second half of February.

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