2005 - 2006 - Pinsent Masons Water Yearbook 2012

FRANCE PART 2: COUNTRY ANALYSIS
Private sector contracts awarded (Please see the relevant company entry for details)
Location Contract Company
National 2,300 water and sewerage contracts Generale des Eaux
National 3,000 water and sewerage contracts Lyonnaise des Eaux
National 6,000 water and sewerage contracts SAUR
Gard & Herault 3 water contracts Ruas de St. Jean de Gard
Competition remains at an early stage
The Syndicat Professionnel des Exploitants Indépendants des Réseaux d'Eau et d'Assainissement
(SPEIREA) was founded as a grouping of water and wastewater service companies outside the three
major companies. Since competition effectively started in 1995-96, 2% of the market has been
gained by perhaps 10-12 independent companies. In the region of 600 municipalities are served by
the five companies identified below.
• RUAS (SA Michel Ruas) provides water to 130,000 people and wastewater services for 120,000
people in 100 communes in the South of France. The first noted contract gain was in 1996.
• SOGEDO (Société de Gérance de Distribution d’Eau) is based in Bordeaux and serves 66 of the
1,457 communes in the Rhone/Mediterranean/Corsica region. Revenues in 2002 were €7
million.
• La Société de Travaux Gestion et Services (STGS) provides water and wastewater services to
330 communes in eight departments in north West France, a total of 52,000 households or
100,000 people. The company was founded in 1991 and is part of STURNO, a French company
involved in telephone, waste management and water equipment and services based in
Avranches in North West France. STGS had revenues of €5.2 million in 2003.
• Alteau was founded in 1992. The company has 82,000 domestic customers (all for water
provision), 55,000 served by concessions and 32,000 through affermage contracts. The two
concessions cover 88 communes and generare revenues of €1.5 million per annum.
Locality (region) Contract People served
Basse-Limagne (Puy-de-Dôme) Concession 78,250
Plaine de Riom (Puy-de-Dôme) Concession 25,500
Ville de Belley (Ain) Affermage 10,000
Velye-Reyssouze-Vieux Jonc (Ain) Affermage 30,000
Saint-Just Saint-Rambert (Loire) Affermage 11,000
Savigneux (Loire) Affermage 8,500
• Ternois Epuration was founded by Ternois Developpement France’s fourth largest manufacturer
of wastewater treatment works founded in 1970. Ternois provides wastewater treatment for
150,000PE, or approximately 80,000 people in a number of municipalities in the Eure, Loire and
Var regions. Revenues were €8.9 million in 2002-03.
Private sector company operations (Please see the relevant company entry for details)
Company Parent company (country)
Population served
Water Sewerage Total
Generale des Eaux VE (France) 26,000,000 19,000,000 26,000,000
Lyonnaise des Eaux Suez (France) 17,000,000 9,000,000 17,000,000
SAUR PAI (France) 6,000,000 6,500,000 6,500,000
Alteau Alteau 163,250 0 163,250
Ruas Ruas 130,000 120,000 130,000
Ternois Epuration Ternois Developpement 0 80,000 80,000
STGS STURNO 100,000 0 100,000
Sogedo Sogedo 50,000 0 50,000
A number of contracts are held jointly (e.g. Paris, Marseille, Lille & Versailles) so the country numbers
include a significant element of double counting. In 2000, approximately 10% of the private sector
share was accounted for by joint ventures, 12 between VE and Suez and 2 between Suez and SAUR.
These arrangements are increasingly seen as being anti-competitive and by 2003, 5 of the VE/Suez
joint ventures had been broken up.
93 Pinsent Masons Water Yearbook 2005 – 2006