The publication cited Laurent Wauquiez, a spokesman for Nicholas Sarkozy’s government, as saying that the administration wishes to take its time over making a decision regarding the two state-owned heavyweight utilities as any outcome would have major repercussions.
We don’t have a fortnight’s deadline and we don’t have a four-month deadline, Mr Wauquiez said, as quoted by AFX News. It is a weighty subject with major implications for jobs.
However, while the publication cited both new French prime minister Francois Fillon and the French union for the gas and electricity sectors as claiming that the matter is not urgent, AFX News also reported that Mr Wauquiez has since claimed that Mr Fillon is attempting to speed up the process.
Mr Wauquiez revealed that Mr Fillon is seeing to it that there is rapid progress on the case and stated, it is a case that is mobilizing the entire government, AFX News reported.
The pending merger between Suez and Gaz de France (GDF) has suffered a number of setbacks, not least that Suez’s equity value far outweighs that of GDF. Although the French government has repeatedly declined to set out a timetable for the merger, the latest reports appear to show that this could happen sooner rather than later.
However, according to MarketWatch, French daily La Tribune has reported that the French government could be looking to give GDF a way out of the merger, or an alternative merger target.
