Engie said it had withheld bid from French conglomerate Bouygues to acquire its Equans service division after its board met to consider bids, Reuters reports.
Engie said he had entered into exclusive negotiations with Bouygues after the group made a firm bid valuing Equans at 7.1 billion euros ($ 8.20 billion). Bouygues has also pledged not to make forced redundancies over the next five years in France and Europe and to create 10,000 new jobs by 2026.
Equans, which provides energy services and facilities management for various companies, has annual revenues of 12 billion euros and about 40% of Engie’s total strength.
Following the acquisition of Equans, industrial services will represent some of Bouygues’ most important activities, in addition to construction, telecommunications and media.
At Engie, the sale of the division is part of a larger plan to give up non-core assets as the group now focuses on renewable energy.
The French group said almost all of the gains from the Bouygues deal would be used to reduce debt.
In addition to Bouygues, Equans was also interested in the French group Eiffage, the American private equity firm Bain Capital and the French engineering company SPIE.
Engie expects the transaction to be completed in the second half of 2022.
The Engie Group is present in Romania in three sectors of activity: natural gas, electricity and energy services. The company has a portfolio of 1.9 million customers, operates a distribution network of about 20,000 km and has 4,000 employees.
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