STAKE SALES

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* Suez has yet to decide whether to offload its remaining 16% interest in Maynilad.

It still has some cleaning up to do in Latin America. In Argentina, local construction firm Roggio has emerged as the most likely candidate to take over Suez’s Aguas Cordobesas concesssion. Roggio, which holds a 16% share in Aguas Cordobesas, says it is at an advanced stage in its negotiations but the company says it is not prepared to take on Suez’s $16 million share of Cordobesas’ debt, a sticking point in discussions. Things are more tricky in Bolivia, where the government has given Suez until the end of July to leave the country, ending its Aguas del Illimani concession.

* On the positive side, Suez has taken a 4.7% interest in the water utility for Greece\'s second largest city, Thessalonica, with a view to forming a strategic partnership with the company.

* In a move which took the management by surprise, Dutch investor YSRO reduced its holding in Christ Water Technology from 32% to “more than 25%”, pushing the amount of the company in “friendly” hands below 50% (the BWT foundation holds 19%). It puts Christ one step closer to being a takeover play. Pictet’s Water Fund spotted the opportunity and increased its share of the company to 9.5%.

* Veolia Environment has finally broken its ties with Vivendi Universal, which has sold its remaining 5.3% stake in the water and environmental services group. The sale put some downward pressure on Veolia shares, which were still recovering from the news that CEO Henri Proglio had tried to buy construction group Vinci (see Analysis opposite). Undaunted by the poor reception of the Vinci deal, Proglio told the International Herald Tribune that the company had €2 billion to spend on acquisitions. The company has recently been on a spending spree for its solid waste management business, buying Biffa in Belgium for €30.7 million and Brambles in the UK for £595 million.

* In terms of new water deals, Veolia has been awarded a €42.7 million contract to upgrade the zero liquid discharge water treatment plant attached to the Bayswater Power Plant north of Sydney. The project’s scope involves two years of design and construction works, and a 5-year operating & maintenance period.

* Back home in France, a Veolia consortium has won the €55 million contract for a new 65,000m3/d wastewater treatment plant in Angers. The company has not been so fortunate in Ireland, where it lost a tender for a €55 million water metering contract to Gerry McCloskey Engineering. The French company is not convinced that Fingal county council awarded the contract fairly. Veolia has been given leave by the high court to sue the council.