Veolia Environnement S.A. (ENXTPA:VIE) offered to acquire remaining 70.1% stake in Suez SA (ENXTPA:SEV) from Amber Capital LP, CIAM and others for €7.9 billion on January 7, 2021. Veolia Environnement S.A. reached an agreement in principle to acquire remaining 70.1% stake in Suez SA from Amber Capital LP, CIAM and others on April 11, 2021. Under the terms, Veolia will pay €18 per share and purchase price will be reduced by any other distribution or adjusted take to account of any capital transaction. As of April 12, 2021, the offer price is increased from €18 per share to €20.5 per share. As of July 20, 2021, the offer price decreased to €19.85 per share after adjusting €0.65 dividend, which was detached on July 6th 2021. Veolia and SUEZ have signed a Combination Agreement on May 14, 2021. Veolia has the necessary funds to complete the transaction. Transaction will be financed by a bridging loan with a banking syndicate. Both parties have agreed to enter into definitive merger agreements by May 14, 2021. Subject to the success of the Offer, Veolia Environnement S.A. intends to request to the shareholders' general meeting of Suez the appointment of its representatives to the board of directors of Suez, in order to reflect the new composition of the shareholding, as well as the renewal or the appointment of directors unrelated to the Veolia group, for a period at least equal to the period during which the shares of Suez will remain listed on Euronext Paris. The entire workforce of Suez and its controlled subsidiaries engaged in salaried activity in France will retain their position. Veolia could include up to four or five executives from Suez on its executive committee out of the dozens of members that will make up the body. Similarly, between fifteen to twenty country managers would be drawn from Suez' workforce out of the forty or so countries in which the group will be represented after the operation. As of June 15, 2021, Bertrand Camus, Director-General and Chief Executive Officer of Suez has resigned, appointment of the next Director-General should be recorded in mid-July.

The tender offer will be subject to regulatory approval, antitrust approval, including approval from European Commission and approval of shareholders of Suez. As of January 7, 2021, Board of Directors of Veolia unanimously approved the transaction. As on February 3, 2021, French court rules in favor of Veolia. French court rules that Veolia did not need to consult Suez staff about this takeover. On February 5, 2021, UK Competition & Markets Authority barred any integration between Veolia Environnement SA and Suez SA. As of February 8, 2021, French court rejected the bid. Veolia intends to apply to the AMF to implement a squeeze-out with respect to Suez shares, if the number of shares not tendered in the Offer by the minority shareholders of Suez does not represent more than 10% of the share capital or the voting rights of Suez following the Offer. The offer will lapse if Veolia fails to acquire share capital of Suez greater than 50%. As on January 8, 2021, Veolia abandoned its previously announced intention to obtain approval from Suez's board prior to lodging a buyout offer. As of February 19, 2021, The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is seeking comments/concerns from public on transaction by March 10, 2021. As of April 15, 2021, the Versailles Court of Appeal found that Veolia had respected the rights and attributions of Suez's employee representative committees by transmitting the documents and information that could be communicated at the stage of the acquisition of 29.9% of Suez from Engie. As of February 23, 2021, the order of February 8, 2021, issued without debate and prohibiting Veolia from filing a tender offer for Suez SA, is cancelled and as a result, Veolia's tender offer is therefore continuing. This revised Veolia offer would be recommended by the SUEZ Board of Directors before June 29, 2021. As of June 29, 2021, Board of Directors of Suez SA approved and recommended its shareholders to accept the offer on revised offer price. On July 20, 2021, the AMF declared the offer to be compliant and approved the draft offer document. The tender offer opened on July 29, 2021. The transaction is expected to close in first quarter of 2022. Closing of the offer is expected to happen on April 19, 2022. Completion is expected by the end of 2021. As of July 23, 2021, the transaction is expected to close no later than early 2022. As of July 29, 2021, Veolia's objective is to close the operation by the end of 2021. As on November 5, 2021, The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is still reviewing the case and is seeking comments/concerns from public on transaction by November 17, 2021. On November 23, 2021, Competition Commission of India approves proposed combination involving acquisition of stake by Veolia Environnement S.A (Veolia) in SUEZ and acquisition of stake in New Suez by Meridiam. On December 7, 2021, CMA decided that the merger has resulted or may be expected to result in a substantial lessening of competition within a market or markets in the United Kingdom. Veolia Environnement had until December 14, 2021 to offer an undertaking to the CMA. As of December 14, 2021, European Commission approved the transaction and the French Competition Authority AMF has set the closing date of the takeover bid as January 7, 2022. The proposed merger has already received 15 out of 18 approvals from the main competition authorities, with the examination still underway by the competition authorities in Chile, the United Kingdom and Australia. On December 14, 2021, Veolia Environnement informed the CMA that it would not be offering any undertakings. The CMA has therefore decided to refer this Merger for a phase 2 investigation pursuant.

Messier Maris & Associés S.C.A. and Perella Weinberg Partners acted as financial advisors to Veolia Environnement S.A. Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank S.A., HSBC Continental Europe, S.A, Morgan Stanley Europe SE, BofA Securities, Inc. and Bank of America Europe DAC acted as presenting banks and financial advisors for Veolia. Board of Directors of Suez has appointed FINEXSI, SA, Financial Advisory Arm as an independent expert and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) acted as defense advisor to Suez. Pierre-Yves Chabert, Anne-Sophie Coustel, Andrew A. Bernstein, Jean-Yves Garaud, Delphine Michot, Antoine Winckler and Séverine Schrameck of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP (France) acted as legal advisor to Veolia Environnement S.A. Bertrand Cardi Ben Burman, Forrest Alogna Cécile de Narp, Gersende Renard in M&A, Didier Théophile, Olivia Chriqui, Martin Lebeuf, Henri Savoie, Patrick Mele, Guillaume Griffart, Cyril Bonan, Nicolas Mennesson, Wenceslas Le Chevalier, Geoffrey Pastorelli, Mathieu Della Victoria Guillaume Aubron and Christophe Vinsonneau of Darrois Villey Maillot Brochier acted as legal advisors to Suez SA in the deal. Claire Jeffs of Slaughter and May acted as legal advisor for Suez. The takeover bid is expected to be settled on January 18, 2022. Thierry Arachtingi, Quentin Hervé, Alexandre Merle, Frédérick Lacroix, Hélène Kouyaté, Diego de Lammerville, Niek De Pauw, Valérie Demeur of Clifford Chance advises Crédit Agricole Corporate & Investment Bank SA.

Veolia Environnement S.A. (ENXTPA:VIE) completed the acquisition of an additional 56.3% majority stake in Suez SA (ENXTPA:SEV) from Amber Capital LP, CIAM and others for €7 billion on January 7, 2022. At the close of Offer on January 7, 2022, Veolia would own 551,451,261 Suez shares representing 86.22% of the share capital and voting rights of Suez. The final result will be announced on January 10, 2022. Veolia will request the reopening of the offer for a period expected to run from January 12 to January 27, 2022 (inclusive). This reopening will allow shareholders who have not tendered their shares to do so under unchanged conditions. As of October 19, 2022, the eligible holders of 14 bond issues previously issued by Suez were successfully consulted to approve this merger-absorption. Veolia also confirms its intention to proceed with the squeeze-out and delisting of Suez shares in the event that the number of shares not tendered to the offer by minority Suez shareholders does not represent, at the end of the reopened offer, more than 10% of the capital and voting rights of Suez. Upon closing of the tender offer process, Veolia owns 95.93% of the share capital and voting rights of Suez. A squeeze-out of the remaining minority shareholders will be implemented on February 18, 2022, upon which Veolia will own 100% of the share capital and voting rights of Suez, which will be simultaneously delisted from Euronext Paris and Brussels.The acquisition of Suez by Veolia remains subject to the approval of the UK Competition and Markets Authority. As of February 17, 2022, Suez SA will be removed from Ecofin Global Water ESG Index on February 18, 2022. As per filing on May 19, 2022, CMA found that the merger of Veolia and Suez would lead to a loss of competition in the supply of several waste and water management services in the UK. The Inquiry Group has decided that the reference period should be extended by eight weeks under section 39(3) of the Act as it considers there are special reasons (set out below) why the Final Report cannot be prepared and published within the reference period. The revised reference period will expire on September 11, 2022.The CMA is investigating the completed acquisition by Veolia Environnement S.A. of a minority shareholding in Suez S.A. Gide advised Veolia Environnement and Vigie in the bond issue and Allen & Overy advised the banking syndicate made up of BNP Paribas, Citigroup and MUFG. Olivier Diaz and Charles de Reals of Gide, Hogan Lovells and Nisha Kaur Uberoi, Gautam Chawla, Shravani Shekhar and Vaibhav Kothari of Trilegal acted as legal advisor to Veolia. Benjamin Kanovich, Adrien Simon and Laura Gabay of Bredin Prat & Associes acted as legal advisor to Suez. Jacques-Philippe, Clément Pradille, Anne-Claire Théry, John Wileur, David Little, Greg Bonné, and James Mathieson of Latham & Watkins advised Saur as a third party during the European Commission's review.