Good news for residents of 133 communes in the Ile-de-France. The new contract for water distribution unsurprisingly won Thursday by Veolia provides a decrease in the price of water in the order of 6%.

On its website, the union of the waters of Ile-de-France (SEDIF), explained that the tax price per cubic meter fall under the responsibility of end December 2010 from 1.75 to 1.51 euros or 1.41 euros , following the return or not nine municipalities in the SEDIF. A decrease of at least 14% plus taxes, which amounts to 6% taxes, according to Le Parisien on Friday.

The new contract also provides for the creation of a multi-rate habitat option that will allow residents of an apartment building to "benefit from rates close to those living in individual homes. The union figure to 19 cents per cubic meter of savings for consumption of 180 cubic meters.In return, the affected households will pay a quarterly subscription of 5.72 euros on 1 January 2011.

Other measures under the contract, an amount of 2.5 million euros devoted to households in difficulty should be established. 1% of revenue from water sales will be allocated according to the statement from Veolia. Tariff escalation in the volume of water consumed should also be introduced.

A highly concentrated market

According to André Santini, President of SEDIF and deputy mayor of Issy-les-Moulineaux, is "the price" that made the difference in the manager's choice of water in the Ile-de-France for the next twelve years. For this mega-contract that represents a combined turnover of around 3 billion euros, the offer of Suez Environment has been ruled out from the month of May in favor of Veolia Environment.Leading distributor of water in France, with 24.6 million users, Veolia is already holder of the Paris agreement since 1923 and is now committed until 2022.

Lack of competition in the market for water distribution in France is regularly singled out by the Competition Council. Some cities are returned to management in public ownership (without going through a private company), as Paris at the beginning of the year. Yet, according SEDIF is "the direct competition between candidates" who has achieved this "significant decline" in prices.

However, the issue of price allow the investor indifferent. At the Paris Stock Exchange shortly after 9:30 am, the title Veolia Environnement rose 0.46% to 20.955 euros on a market up 0.44%.

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