Veolia Environnement

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Veolia Environnement SA is a leading French-based company with activities in four main areas - water, waste management, energy and transport services. In 2003 it had revenues of €28.6bn and employed around 300,000 people. It is quoted on Euronext Paris and the New York Stock Exchange.

Between 2000 and 2003 the company was known as Vivendi Environnement, having been spun off from the Vivendi conglomerate, most of the rest of which became Vivendi Universal. Prior to 1998 Vivendi was known as Compagnie Générale des Eaux. "Veolia", adopted in April 2003, is derived from Aeolus, the keeper of the winds in Greek mythology.

Contents

1 History

1.1 Vivendi
1.2 Veolia

2 Major subsidiaries
3 External links

History

On December 14, 1853, a water company named Compagnie Générale des Eaux (CGE) was created by an Imperial decree of Napoleon III. In 1854, CGE obtained a concession in order to supply water to the public in Lyon, serving in this capacity for over a hundred years. In 1861, it obtained a 50-year concession with the City of Paris.

For a hundred years, Compagnie Générale des Eaux remained largely focussed on the water sector. However, following the appointment of Guy Dejouany as CEO in 1976, CGE extended its activities into other sectors with a series of takeovers. Beginning in 1980, CGE began diversifying its operations from water into waste management, energy, transport services, and construction and property. It acquired the "Compagnie Générale d'Entreprises Automobiles" (CGEA), specialized in industrial vehicles, which was later divided into two branches: Connex and Onyx Environnement. CGE then acquired the "Compagnie Générale de Chauffe", and later the Montenay group. The Energy Services division these companies became part of was later (1998) renamed "Dalkia".

CGE's expansion into communication commenced with the establishment of Canal+ in 1983, the first Pay-TV channel in France, and in the 1990s. This expansion was accelerated after Jean-Marie Messier succeeded Guy Dejouany on June 27, 1996. In 1996, CGE created Cegetel to take advantage of the 1998 deregulation of the French telecommunications market, accelerating the move into the media sector which would culminate in the 2000 demerger into Vivendi Universal and Vivendi Environnement.

Vivendi

In 1998, Compagnie Générale des Eaux changed its name to Vivendi, and sold off its property and construction divisions the following year.

In July 2000, Vivendi spun off the remaining water and waste companies into Vivendi Environnement (IPO in Paris in July 2000 and in New York in October 2001), later (2003) renamed Veolia Environnement. Vivendi went on to list on the New York Stock Exchange (as "V"), and in December, announced a major merger with Canal+ and Seagram, the owner of Universal Studios film company, to become Vivendi Universal.

Veolia

After the demerger from Vivendi SA had seen Veolia loaded with around €20bn of debt, Veolia made a €2bn loss in 2003, largely on the disposal of most of its major US subsidiary US Filter (excluding water operations, retained under the name Veolia Water North America).[link] It subsequently returned to profit; its Veolia Water division remains one of the two largest private water companies in the world.

Major subsidiaries

Water: Veolia Water (formerly Vivendi Water)
Waste management: Onyx Environnement [link] (which became Veolia Environmental Services)
Energy: Dalkia
Transport services: Connex (which became Veolia Transport)

External links

CAC 40 companies of France

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