Suspecting the Secretary General of the Élysée Palace and officials of Veolia and Engie of influence peddling around Veolia’s takeover bid for Suez, the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) opened an investigation in mid-June. following a complaint from several unions of the Suez group, announced a judicial source on Friday.
The plaintiffs – who represent the majority of the intersyndicale of the Suez group – denounced “the intervention of the Elysee Palace well in advance of the public announcement of the project” of merger between the two flagships of water and waste, then the “regular and repeated pressures to bring about” the rapprochement. The PNF’s preliminary investigation was opened on June 18, 2021, the judicial source said.
“Actors close to power”
In their complaint, filed on April 22 with the financial prosecutor’s office, the unions suspected the secretary general of the Elysee Palace Alexis Kohler, the CEO of Veolia Antoine Frérot, the chairman of the board of directors of Engie Jean-Pierre Clamadieu and the CEO of the Meridiam Thierry Déau fund, for having agreed on the merger of the two entities.
The unions mentioned, in the complaint, several meetings “involving the government”, an agreement with Meridiam “prior to the announcement of the project”, “the intervention at different levels of many actors close to power ( …) But above all the direct intervention of Alexis Kohler in October 2020 with union representatives ”to obtain, during the Board of Directors of Engie, that Veolia buys back the shares (29.9%) held by Suez.
Evidence
In May, a month after the complaint, the Union syndicale (CGT-CFDT-CFTC) of Suez, claiming 65% of the representativeness of the group, had “decided to give notice to the companies Veolia, Engie, Meridiam and Suez not to not proceed with the destruction or alteration of the documents seized on November 26, 2020 and currently in receivership ”.
They worried about seeing the disappearance of “these documents (which) could turn out to be decisive elements of proof making it possible to identify with more precision the role of each of the actors having been involved” in the takeover. On the evening of Sunday August 30, 2020, Antoine Frérot, CEO of the world’s number one water and waste company, launched the industrial and financial soap opera of the year in France by presenting to the press his grand design, the acquisition of the rival always.
“Champion” of water
In early October 2020, Veolia bought 29.9% of Suez from Engie, before launching a takeover bid on the rest of the shares, to the chagrin of its beleaguered rival. But after more than seven months of tough negotiations, the leaders of Veolia and Suez finally agreed in mid-May for the former to absorb a good part of the latter and to form a “champion” of water and heavy waste. 37 billion euros.
At the end of July, Veolia launched a takeover bid for the remaining 70.1%. The case should, according to the parties, be settled in the coming months, giving birth to a reinforced Veolia and one in Suez reduced to 40% of the current group.