Veolia refuse lorry in central London
1853–2003: Compagnie Générale des Eaux and Vivendi On 14 December 1853, a water company named
Compagnie Générale des Eaux (CGE) was created by an Imperial decree of
Napoleon III. In 1853, CGE obtained a concession to supply water to the public in
Lyon, serving in this capacity for over a hundred years. In 1860, it obtained a 50-year concession with the City of Paris. For a hundred years, Compagnie Générale des Eaux remained largely focused on the water sector. However, following the appointment of
Guy Dejouany as
CEO in 1976, CGE extended its activities into other sectors with a series of takeovers. Beginning in 1980, CGE began diversifying its operations from water into waste management, energy,
transport services, and
construction and
property. It did so by acquiring: •
Compagnie générale française des transports et entreprises (CGFTE), created from Compagnie Générale Française de Tramways (CGFT) (originally founded in 1875) in 1953. It was absorbed into CGEA Transport (later Connex). • Compagnie Générale d'Entreprises Automobiles (CGEA), which specialized in industrial vehicles and later divided into two branches: The transport division became
Connex in 1999 and the waste management and environmental services became
Onyx Environnement in 1989. CGEA was created in 1912. • Compagnie Générale de Chauffe (CGC) (and also later the Montenay group in 1986), with these companies later becoming the Energy Services division of CGE, and later renamed "
Dalkia" in 1998. CGC was created in 1935.) •
Dalkia (originally CGC and already renamed since 1998) •
Onyx Environnement (originally part of CGEA and already branded since 1989) •
Connex (remaining part of CGEA ) Vivendi went on to list on the New York Stock Exchange (as "V"), and in December, announced a major merger with Canal+ and
Seagram, the owner of
Universal Studios film company, to become
Vivendi Universal and now named Vivendi. In July 2000, Vivendi Environnement was divested through
IPOs in Paris and later New York in October 2001). Initially, Vivendi Universal retained a 70% stake in Vivendi Environnement in 2000, but by December 2002, it was reduced to 20.4%. In 2003, Vivendi Environnement was renamed to Veolia Environnement.
2003–2020 As a result of Vivendi Environnement spinning off from its parent Vivendi Universal in 2002, in 2003, Vivendi Environnement was renamed to Veolia Environnement. as Proglio kept executive positions – and subsequent salary – in both companies until public criticism forced him to give up his Veolia revenues. Its Veolia Water division remains the largest private operator of water services in the world, providing services across the globe. Transdev (formerly Veolia Transdev) was formed in 2011 from a merger of
Veolia Transport with the
old Transdev, a subsidiary of
Caisse des Dépôts. Currently, Veolia owns 30% of the company's shares. Prior to the merger, Veolia Transport was the transport division of Veolia. It was originally part of the CGEA, which was acquired in 1980, and the transport division was then renamed Connex in 1999, then finally renamed to Veolia Transport in 2005. On 6 December 2011, Veolia Environment, seeking to reduce debt and focus on its core businesses of water, waste and energy, announced that it will eventually sell its share in Veolia Transdev, within a two-year time frame, by when its own activities will have been reorganized. After this announcement, the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations, for its part, officially reiterated its commitment to Veolia Transdev and its continued support as a shareholder to the group's development. In early 2012, it was reported that Cube Infrastructure, a fund controlled by the French bank
Natixis (
Groupe BPCE), was likely to acquire about half of Veolia's stake in Transdev. The
Caisse des Dépôts would take over the other half. This was later changed in October 2012 to Caisse des Dépôts acquiring 10% of the shares from Veolia. This however was not implemented. In December 2016, CDC finally bought 20% shares from Veolia. In 2012, the group launched a major restructuring plan: one Veolia per country for a single international headquarters. The company's activity is refocused on markets with large volumes and greater added value (difficult-to-treat pollution, the circular economy, more industrial groups as customers, etc.). Veolia Environnement officially becomes Veolia. In Latin America, Proactiva was a 50-50 joint venture formed in 1999 between Veolia Environnement and
Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas (FCC), until Veolia bought the other 50% share from FCC in 2013. As a result, Veolia now owns 100% of Proactiva. In 2014,
EDF took over Dalkia's activities in France while Veolia took over 100% of Dalkia's international activities. In February 2016, Veolia acquired the American Kurion, which specializes in low-level radioactive residue remediation techniques, for 350 million dollars. The acquisition expanded the activities of Asteralis, its subsidiary focused on waste characterization and nuclear facility assessment. It was part of Veolia's 2016–2018 investment plan, which also included cost-reduction measures. In May 2016, Veolia announced the creation of the largest sewage sludge treatment plant in the world, located in Hong Kong. In June 2016, Veolia announced the acquisition for $325 million of the sulfuric acid activities of the company Chemours, resulting from the split of the specialty chemicals activities of DuPont. The following month, Veolia continued its acquisitions and acquired the Szakoly power plant, the fifth largest electricity production facility in Hungary from biomass and contributed to the development of renewable energies in the country. In North America, Veolia Energy traded under the Trigen Energy name until February 2011. It was a major operator and developer of efficient
district energy (heating, cooling, and
cogeneration) systems in North America, located in ten major U.S. cities. It also provides facility operations, energy management, and advisory services. In July 2019, Veolia sold its heating and cooling networks in the United States for $1.25 billion to the French investment fund
Antin Infrastructure Partners, which renamed the business
Vicinity Energy. In December 2019, Veolia, through its subsidiary Veolia Nuclear Solutions, and the electrician EDF announced the creation of Graphitech, a company responsible for dismantling graphite technology nuclear reactors.
2020–present On 30 August 2020, Veolia mades an offer to ENGIE to buy back 29.9% of Suez shares for the sum of 2.9 billion euros, and then proposed a public tender offer for Suez for the rest shares. In October 2020, Veolia acquired the 29.9% stake in Engie, for 3.4 billion euros. In April 2021, Veolia and Suez publish a joint press release claiming to have found common ground for Veolia to absorb a large part of Suez's international activities, which should bring Veolia's valuation to 37 billion euros. This operation values Suez at 13 billion euros. A merger agreement was signed in May 2021 to formalize the transaction. In December 2021, the European Commission approved the takeover, subject to a series of conditions, including asset divestments to address competition concerns. In early 2022, Veolia announced the completion of its acquisition of Suez and its intention to integrate the acquired activities within the group. In July 2022,
Estelle Brachlianoff became the CEO of the Group after succeeding
Antoine Frérot who remained as Chairman of its Board. In November 2025, Veolia Environnement acquired the American company Clean Earth for 3.04 billion dollars. ==Operations==