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PARIS (Reuters) – Veolia, the French water and waste group pursuing a hostile takeover of Suez, is taking legal action, including an injunction against its rival’s poison defense, Les Echos reported.
The legal steps reported by the French daily, and long threatened by Veolia, are the latest blow in a six-month takeover battle triggered by the sale by Engie of a 29.9% stake in Suez to Veolia.
In an effort to force Veolia to the negotiating table, Suez’s board on Saturday activated a Dutch foundation set up earlier to prevent the sale of French hydropower assets that Veolia would have to cede to gain antitrust approval from the agreement.
In addition to asking a court to suspend the foundation, Veolia is asking the members of the board of directors of Suez to specify whether they voted for its creation, as a prelude to a legal action asking for 300 million euros (358 million dollars) in joint damages, Les Echos reported on its website.
Suez, whose board of directors rejected the offer of 18 euros per share of Veolia in February, issued a counter-proposal this weekend.
This offer, immediately rejected by Veolia, would see Veolia pay 20 euros per share and sell a larger part of the business to private equity funds Ardian and GIP at an equivalent price.
(1 USD = 0.8380 euros)
Report by Matthieu Protard; Written by Laurence Frost; Edited by Cynthia Osterman
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