Suez SA Did It Blow One Past Us?

Suez SA (ADR) (Public OTC:SZEZY) through a branded but wholly owned subsidiary called Suez Environment again through another subsidiary called United Water just bought a private company called Utility Service Company of Perry, GA. Utility Service Company is the nation’s leading water tank maintenance service company with operations throughout the United States. The acquisition is expected to close in the second quarter this year.

Suez SA has a market cap of approximately $88 Billion. The press release headlines the deal as “Acquisition Will Create Growth Opportunities for United Water” No financial terms were announced. The deal is probably good enough for the owners of Utility Service. But what does it do for the shareholders of Suez? The US market is large and a merger of this nature is not done for it's petty cash value.

The latest financial press release from Feb 26, 2008 indicates that there will be something called a dynamic shareholder remuneration policy. So how does this deal which needed to be publicly announced fit into the overall picture.