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No decision by Pinault on Suez bid, all options open
2007-01-02
French billionaire Francois Pinault has taken no decision on a possible bid for utility group Suez and all options remain open, a statement from his holding company Artemis has said. "Artemis confirms that until now no decision on the possibility of an offer for the shares of Suez has been taken and that all options remain open," Tuesday's statement said. It was issued after Suez, in the face of reports that Pinault was interested in acquiring the group, called on the French stock market regulator AMF to ask him to state his intentions. Pinault's luxury group PPR controls the Gucci fashion label. Suez later Tuesday described the Artemis statement as "vague and imprecise" and said it had again asked the AMF to obtain "an unequivocal clarification from the Pinault group of its intentions." Suez shares in mid-day deals on the French exchange were up 1.12 percent at 39.67 euros. The French magazine Capital last week reported that Pinault in early January would put forward a bid of 70 billion euros (92 billion dollars) for Suez, which specializes in energy, water and sanitation activities, and would then sell the company's energy assets to state-controlled Gaz de France (GDF). The Wall Street Journal in its weekend edition predicted that Pinault would not bid for Suez but might instead be interested in acquiring shares in the company if its planned merger with GDF did not succeed. Under a government-backed plan to create a French energy giant, Suez is set to merge with GDF later this year, but the initiative has faced political opposition and could be affected by the outcome of presidential elections in April and May. The transaction, which can only be completed after July 1 according to a recent court ruling, would entail the effective privatisation of state-controlled GDF, which is rejected by the Socialist opposition party and trade unions. The Suez-GDF tie-up was unveiled by the French government early last year as a means of thwarting a bid for Suez by Italian energy group Enel.
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