Filed by: Gaz de France
pursuant to Rule 165 and Rule 425(a)
under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended
Subject Company: SUEZ
Exchange Act File Number: 001-15232
Date: May 30, 2008
On May 29, 2008, Gaz de France issued the following press release.
Important Information
This communication does not constitute an offer to purchase, sell, or exchange or the solicitation of an offer to sell, purchase, or exchange any securities of Suez, Suez Environment (or any company holding the Suez Environment Shares) or Gaz de France, nor shall there be any offer, solicitation, purchase, sale or exchange of securities in any jurisdiction (including the United States, Germany, Italy and Japan) in which such offer, solicitation, purchase, sale or exchange would be unlawful prior to the registration or qualification under the laws of such jurisdiction. The distribution of this communication may, in some countries, be restricted by law or regulation. Accordingly, persons who come into possession of this document should inform themselves of and observe these restrictions. To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, Gaz de France and Suez disclaim any responsibility or liability for the violation of such restrictions by any person.
The Gaz de France ordinary shares which would be issued in connection with the proposed business combination to holders of Suez ordinary shares (including Suez ordinary shares represented by Suez American Depositary Shares) may not be offered or sold in the United States except pursuant to an effective registration statement under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or pursuant to a valid exemption from registration.
In connection with the proposed transactions, the required information document will be filed with theAutorité des marchés financiers(“AMF”) and, to the extent Gaz de France is required or otherwise decides to register the Gaz de France ordinary shares to be issued in connection with the business combination in the United States, Gaz de France may file with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), a registration statement on Form F-4, which will include a prospectus.Investors are strongly advised to read the information document filed with the AMF, the registration statement and the prospectus, if and when available, and any other relevant documents filed with the SEC and/or the AMF, as well as any amendments and supplements to those documents, because they will contain important information.If and when filed, investors may obtain free copies of the registration statement, the prospectus as well as other relevant documents filed with the SEC, at the SEC’s web site atwww.sec.gov and will receive information at an appropriate time on how to obtain these transaction-related documents for free from Gaz de France or its duly designated agent. Investors and holders of Suez securities may obtain free copies of documents filed with the AMF at the AMF’s website atwww.amf-france.org or directly from Gaz de France on its web site atwww.gazdefrance.com or directly from Suez on its website atwww.suez.com, as the case may be.
Forward-Looking Statements
This communication contains forward-looking information and statements about Gaz de France, Suez, Suez Environment and their combined businesses after completion of the proposed transactions. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts. These statements include financial projections, synergies, cost-savings and estimates and their underlying assumptions, statements regarding plans, objectives, savings, expectations and benefits from the transaction and expectations with respect to future operations, products and services, and statements regarding future performance. Forward-looking statements are generally identified by the words “expect,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “intends,” “estimates” and similar expressions. Although the managements of Gaz de France and Suez believe that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, investors and holders of Gaz de France and Suez ordinary shares are cautioned that forward-looking information and statements are not guarantees of future performances and are subject to various risks and uncertainties, many of which are difficult to predict and generally beyond the control of Gaz de France and Suez, that could cause actual results, developments, synergies, savings and benefits from the proposed transactions to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied or projected by, the forward-looking information and statements. These risks and uncertainties include those discussed or identified in the public filings with theAutorité des marchés financiers(“AMF”) made by Gaz de France and Suez, including those listed under “Facteurs de Risques” in theDocument de Référencefiled by Gaz de France with the AMF on May 15, 2008 (under no: R.08-0056) and any update thereto and in theDocument de Référencefiled by Suez on March 18, 2008 and any update thereto, as well as documents filed by Suez with the SEC, including those listed under “Risk Factors” in the Annual Report on Form 20-F for 2006 that Suez filed with the SEC on June 29, 2007. Except as required by applicable law, neither Gaz de France nor Suez undertakes any obligation to update any forward-looking information or statements.
* * * *
Gaz de France proceeds with the sale of Cofathec Coriance
and fulfils one of the commitments
within the merger process with Suez
Paris, May 29, 2008 –Cofathec, a Gaz de France Group subsidiary, and the Italian group A2A signed an agreement to sell Cofathec Coriance to A2A.
This sale enables Gaz de France to fulfill one of the commitments it made to the European Commission within the merger process with Suez.
Cofathec Coriance is a company that specializes in the management of heating networks in France. Within the framework of the local delegation of public services, it runs in France a total of 23 heating networks, with a length of 125 km, as at end of 2007. As such, it serves more than 100,000 housing units and operates 14 cogeneration power stations, providing a total capacity of 80 MWe. In 2007, it posted net sales of 63 million euros for the activities of Cofathec Coriance on sale totalling a production of 670 million kWh of heat and 250 million kWh of electricity.
The A2A Group is the first Italian operator in the urban heating sector, where it operates 24 networks providing production of heat for 1.5 TWh. It is also one of the top-ranking companies in Italy for the production and distribution of electricity.
The price of the transaction amounts to €44,6m, and the enterprise value of Cofathec Coriance rises to €87m.
This transaction will be submitted to the approval of the competition authorities.
| Press Contact: | Financial Communications Contact: | |
Jérôme Chambin Tel.: 33-1 47 54 24 35 E-mail: jerome.chambin@gazdefrance.com | Brigitte Roeser Herlin Tel.: 33-1 47 54 77 25 E-mail: GDF-IR-TEAM@gazdefrance.com | |
Group profile:
Gaz de France Group is a major energy player in Europe. As the leading natural gas distributor in Europe, Gaz de France employs almost 50,000 employees and generated €27 billion in sales in 2007. The Group holds a portfolio of some 14 million clients, approximately 11 million of which are in France. Listed on the Paris Stock Exchange, Gaz de France is also part of the CAC 40 and Dow Jones Stoxx 600 indices.
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