GDF-Suez merge to form energy giant

Shareholders have approved the merger of energy and waste companies GDF and Suez – creating a new energy giant in Europe.

Suez chairman Gerard Mestrallet described the deal as "one of the largest mergers in France in the last 20 years,"
The new company is Europe’s second biggest electricity producer.
GDF-Suez, which employs 200,000 people, will be floated on the stock exchange on July 22 with a starting value of 93 billion euros; the government holds a 35.6% stake.

It predicts a turnover of 17 billion euros each year by 2010.

The company’s future director Gérard Mestrallet said: “This is a dream which has been achieved, directed by changes in the energy market.”

The head of GDF Jean-François Cirelli said Europe needed strong energy companies as a region where energy security was “a game of the highest stakes.”

Merging the companies was put forward by the government in 2007. The process has taken almost two years with unions trying to block the move.

Photo:L_Avi