Suez has asked the EU’s internal markets commissioner, Charlie McCreevy, to look into the issue of the limited voting rights in the Italian incumbent power firm. Suez claims that the Italian government has exorbitant rights over Enel, which restrict other shareholders’ voting entitlement to the equivalent of just a 3% stake in the firm.
Suez claims that the dominant influence of the state over Enel effectively means the company is ‘bid-proof’, thereby contravening EU regulations on market opening and M&A activity.
Suez has therefore requested the commission, given the responsibilities it has for preserving the single market, to place all the actors in a situation of equivalence in the regulator field, and in the meantime, to take any and all necessary urgent measures to preserve equality of treatment among operators, the company was quoted as saying by the AFX news service.
The French firm’s complaint is the latest salvo in a bitter dispute between France and Italy over the future of Suez. Enel believes that Paris orchestrated a merger between Gaz de France and Suez in a bid to ward off an approach from Enel.
The furious reaction in Italy prompted accusations that the French government was guilty of protectionism, although its prime minister Dominique de Villepin prefers the phrase ‘economic patriotism’.
The Italian government owns a 31% stake in Enel. Unlike France however, the Italian energy sector has embraced market opening under the EU second directive well ahead of the 2007 deadline imposed from Brussels.
Earlier reports had suggested that the Italian government, and perhaps embattled prime minister Silvio Berlusconi in particular, were looking to sidestep further arguments with France on the issue as the Italian general election is looming. Suez’s latest comments may derail this effort.
