Veolia raises £1.2bn from UK water business sale

27/06/2012

By Daniel Hunter

Veolia Environnement, the French water and waste group, have announced the sale of its three UK water businesses as they seek to reduce their debts.

The sale to Rift Acquisitions, which includes Veolia Water's central, southeast and east businesses, will fetch £1.24 billion.

News of the sale saw Veolia shares open 2.4% up in Paris. There will be further sales by the company who are committed to selling 5 billion euros of assets by 2013 as part of a programme to restore profits.

Last year the group unearthed a 90m-euro ($111.7m) accounting fraud at a subsidiary in the US which plunged the group into loss.

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