Business Case Studies & Business Publications

Suez and Veolia in Hot Water

Debaere, Peter, Ag...

Case

Suez and Veolia in Hot Water

Debaere, Peter; Agrawal, Minal

GEM-0221 | Published December 20, 2023 | 18 pages Case

Collection: Darden School of Business

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The case, “Suez and Veolia in Hot Water,” takes the merger between Suez and Veolia, the two largest global water and waste multinationals, as a starting point and puts it in the context of the ongoing discussion in France (and elsewhere) about remunicipalizing utilities, especially water and wastewater. The broader background of the case narrative constitutes, on the one hand, the water infrastructure crisis in many advanced countries, and, on the other, the challenges the water sector faces due to climate change. The emphasis of the case discussion is on the economic analysis of private-public partnerships (PPPs). These partnerships between the public and the private sectors are not trivial in the context of water infrastructure, especially because water utilities tend to be natural monopolies and because water is a good that has both a private and a public dimension. “Suez and Veolia in Hot Water” is taught at the Darden School of Business in the MBA “Global Economics of Water” course. The case belongs in the policy module, which follows cases about and discussion of the global and climate-change context of water. The policy module focuses on water utilities and water markets. The case can also easily be taught on its own, as it deals with PPPs, which have been receiving quite a bit of attention lately.