Defending the Internal Water Empire
13 junio 2007PARIS, February 4, 2003 — While peddling the benefits of free-market privatization abroad, France carefully guards its own borders against foreign companies, claiming water is too important to be controlled by outsiders.
PARIS, February 4, 2003 — While peddling the benefits of free-market privatization abroad, France carefully guards its own borders against foreign companies, claiming water is too important to be controlled by outsiders.
In late 2002, when debt-ridden Vivendi Universal announced it would sell its shares in its water division, Vivendi Environnement, the French government was not enthusiastic about the prospect of foreigners gaining control of it. “Water supply is very much a public service, and we should pay attention that Vivendi doesn’t fall into bad hands,” said President Jacques Chirac, who was in the middle of his successful re-election campaign.
The finance ministry assembled a group of investors to consider taking over Vivendi Environnement. They included the state-owned power company, Electricité de France (EdF), which took 4 percent, with an option to buy another 4 percent, and the 186-year-old state bank, the Caisse des Depots et Consignations, which bought 3.2 percent with an option on another 5.6 percent.
