Fillon vets gas giant’s suitors

French Prime Minister François Fillon is next month set to announce the fate of a planned merger between utilities Gaz de France and Suez.

The marriage was hastily arranged by Fillon’s predecessor Dominique de Villepin at the beginning of 2006 to fend off a bid for Suez from Italian group Enel.

Although France’s constitutional court had approved a law on the privatisation of Gaz de France, a prerequisite for a deal that would reduce the government’s stake in the company by more than half to just 37%, it ruled that the green light could only be given after liberalisation of France’s domestic energy market on 1 July. The deal was approved by the European Commission in November.

Other possible candidates for a merger with Gaz de France being pondered by Fillon are Electricité de France, the country’s main electricity generation and distribution company, and Algerian petrochemicals firm Sonatrach.

French Prime Minister François Fillon is next month set to announce the fate of a planned merger between utilities Gaz de France and Suez.