Gaz de France

Gaz de France (GDF) is a French company which specializes in the transportation and distribution of natural gas. On February 25, 2006, French Prime minister Dominique de Villepin announced the merger of Suez and GDF, which would make the first world liquefied natural gas company<ref>http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-3234,36-745348,0.html (subscription)</ref>. However, since the French state owns 80.2% of Gaz de France, a new law would have to be passed in order to make the merger possible. The CGT trade-union pronounced itself against any reduction of the shares owned by the state, alleging risks of downsizing. The revenue of GDF was about 22.4 billion euros in 2005, compared to 41.5 billion for Suez. Henceforth, the state would automatically control only 34% of the capital of the new group <ref>GDF-Suez petits arrangements avec la vérité. humanite.fr. Retrieved on 2006-09-25.</ref>.

On the night of 24 October 2006 to 25 October 2006, the French Senate approved its Privatization by 173 against 145. The radical left of French parties, namely Parti Socialiste, Parti Communiste Français and a centre party, UDF opposed this, plus a part of the majority of the right-leaned governement party UMP.

GDF have operations in the UK, where it is the fifth largest gas supplier to industry and commerce.

v • d • e</span> CAC 40 companies of France		Image:Flag of France.svg
Accor \| AGF \| Air Liquide \| Alcatel-Lucent \| Alstom \| Arcelor-Mittal \| AXA \| BNP Paribas \| Bouygues \| Capgemini \| Carrefour \| Crédit Agricole \| Dexia \| EADS \| EDF \| Essilor \| France Télécom \| Gaz de France \| Groupe Danone \| L'Oréal \| Lafarge \| Lagardère \| LVMH \| Michelin \| Pernod Ricard \| PSA Peugeot Citroën \| PPR \| Publicis \| Renault \| Saint-Gobain \| Sanofi-Aventis \| Schneider Electric \| Société Générale \| STMicroelectronics \| SUEZ \| Thomson \| Total \| VINCI \| Veolia Environnement \| Vivendi