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CMA Unwinds Veolia & Suez Merger In The UK

By  |  August 25, 2022

The CMA has today required Veolia to sell 3 businesses after an in-depth merger investigation concluded the merger gives rise to competition concerns in a number of markets.

Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said its decision would “protect councils and businesses from likely higher prices and lower-quality services.”

Suez’s UK waste management services business, Suez’s UK industrial water operation business and Veolia’s European mobile water services business must all be sold to buyers approved by the CMA, it said.

“We will now work with Veolia to ensure that appropriate buyers are found so that business, councils – and ultimately taxpayers – will not lose out,” Stuart McIntosh, chair of the CMA inquiry group, said.

Veolia and Suez’s 13 billion euro ($13 billion) tie-up won approval from the European Union in December, after a months-long legal dispute, and the deal closed in January.

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