French water and waste company Veolia Environnement SA is planning the sale of its France-based water-pipe installation business, Sade, reports Bloomberg.
With the sale of its water-pipe unit, Veolia will focus more on waste processing, plastic recycling and energy-saving services, said sources who know of the firm’s plans.
According to Bloomberg, Veolia may seek to value its water networks engineering unit Sade at as much as €300 million ($329 million).
Sade, which builds and maintains drinking water and wastewater networks and related installations, reported a revenue of €1.1 billion last year and could possibly interest construction companies and private equity investors.
A spokesperson for the Paris-based utility declined to comment.
This is not the first time Sade has been considered for sale. In 2014, Veolia’s former Chief Executive Antoine Frerot announced that Veolia was assessing if it made sense to keep Sade as part of the company.
“We are currently assessing whether it is now better for Sade to remain part of Veolia or if it’s the opposite, but no decision has been taken.”
The talks of Sade’s sale come as France is suffering from a prolonged drought, prompting growing demands to fix leaky water networks. At the beginning of April, President Macron announced a nationwide plan to save water, including an emergency fund worth €180 million to be allocated to address leakage and upgrade water networks where it is most needed.
