Paris – Utility giant Suez SA and state-owned Gaz de France agreed Sunday to new terms for a long-stalled merger that would create a global energy behemoth minority-owned by the French state, an official said.
Both companies’ boards met Sunday night and approved an outline of the new deal, said a participant in the meeting who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks. The companies were expected to release financial details of the plan this morning.
Suez will shed most of its water and waste division under the new terms, brokered by President Nicolas Sarkozy in a frenzy of weekend negotiations. The original merger plan, announced in February 2006, has been tangled in political, legal and financial problems for 18 months.
The merged entity, called GDF-Suez, would be worth about $110 billion, presidential spokesman Claude Gueant said. He said the new terms give the state a greater say than the earlier deal.
Supporters say the union will help ease European energy concerns in the coming decades.
Analysts say the merger plan makes more financial sense with the sale of some of Suez’s activities.
Critics outside France call the merger protectionist, since it was originally designed to fend off a hostile bid for Suez from Italy’s Enel SpA. French unions oppose the merger – both the original and updated versions – because it requires privatizing GDF.
The state owns 79.8 percent of the natural-gas company.
