PARIS (S&P Global Ratings) Sept. 21, 2021--S&P Global Ratings today said that the €2.5 billion capital increase announced by French utility Veolia Environnement S.A. (Veolia; BBB/Stable/A-2) for the full acquisition of Suez S.A. (Suez) removes significant execution risk for the transaction and increases credit metric headroom. The capital increase, announced on Sept. 16, 2021, was one of the key remedy measures we expected Veolia to use to remediate its €24.8 billion bid for Suez (including €12.1 billion for Suez's reported net debt), together with the pre-agreed back-to-back disposal of Suez's French operations (see "French Utility Veolia Affirmed At 'BBB/A-2' On Agreed Merger With Suez; Outlook Stable," published April 16, 2021, on RatingsDirect). Another key element we will monitor is the
