Suez toward a European enterprise, 1982-2000

Compagnie universelle du canal maritime de Suez had been specialised in the management and the development of the Suez Canal in Egypt, up to its nationalisation in 1956. Afterwards, owing to its accumulated reserves and the indemnity paid by the Egyptian state, it became a financial company under the name Compagnie financière de Suez 1. It developed a multi-activities strategy, investing funds into banking subsidiaries, industry and services companies, and financial funds, focusing mainly on French firms. Its (second) nationalisation in 1982 and its privatisation in 1987 coincided with the rapid globalisation of its industrial and services partners on a European scale and the building of a common finance and banking market in Western Europe, especially from January 1993, which involved directly its banking subsidiary, Banque Indosuez 2. A long-term strategy emerged therefore, which transformed an almost wholly French-oriented firm into a Europeanised group, which was symbolised by the purchase of the huge financial holding Société générale de Belgique in 1989. That was the climax of a strategy which intended to set up a finance and banking-oriented firm, or a “groupe financier”3. It was perceived as a beacon for the reconstruction of French capitalism around a few groups4, notably Suez and Paribas5.(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)