Suez and Gaz de France resumed talks on Saturday to try to reach a deal on a delayed 90-billion-euro ($122.9 billion) merger, with an announcement possible on Monday. Suez has, according to sources close to the situation, bowed to pressure from French President Nicolas Sarkozy to split its business and shed part of its historic water assets to salvage a merger agreement with state-controlled GDF.
"As the Elysee's secretary general (Claude Gueant) has indicated, if an accord were to be concluded, the firms would talk about it on Monday," a spokesman at Sarkozy's office, the Elysee, told Reuters. Trade unions are vehemently opposed to the deal, which was brokered by the previous conservative government at the start of 2006 to fend off a feared take-over bid for Suez by Italy's Enel but which has dragged on into a new French presidency.
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