Politics will test Franco-Swiss $33 bln megamerger

Bureau Veritas SA

15/01/2025 12:18

(The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist.  The opinions
expressed are his own.)
    By Pierre Briancon
       BERLIN, Jan 15 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Parisian
testing and certification group Bureau Veritas is discussing a
tie-up with Geneva-based peer SGS. In theory, a deal in the
fragmented sector could bring helpful scale and diversification.
But the French government’s 4% stake may make it hard to extract
racy cost savings.
    Full view will be published shortly.
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    CONTEXT NEWS
    France’s Bureau Veritas is discussing a deal with Swiss
testing and inspection peer SGS, the companies said on Jan. 15.
    Bloomberg News previously reported that the companies were
in advanced talks to merge and said that the final details of a
transaction could be announced in the coming weeks.
    Using Jan. 14 closing prices, SGS had an 18.7 billion euro
market capitalisation while Bureau Veritas’ equity was worth
13.5 billion euros.
    As of 1153 GMT on Jan. 15, SGS shares were down 5.9%, wiping
out 1.1 billion euros of value, while Bureau Veritas’ shares
were up 2.4%, boosting its value by about 300 million euros.

 (Editing by Liam Proud and Oliver Taslic)
 ((For previous columns by the author, Reuters customers can
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pierre.briancon@thomsonreuters.com))