Contents
172Thus, on the basis of the findings set out in recitals 36, 51 and 53 of the contested decision, the Commission held, firstly, that the declarations from July 2002 were sufficiently clear, precise and firm for a finding that there was an unequivocal, firm and credible commitment on the part of the French State . The Commission then found that that commitment involved State resources in that it was capable of giving rise to a cost for the French State. The latter has a legal obligation or de facto duty to honour that promise, failing which it must indemnify FT’s creditors for their loss or, at the very least, suffer a loss of credibility with the financial markets, which would have represented a much greater financial loss .
The impact on the market of the shareholder loan proposal of December 2002 was also less than that of the declarations from July 2002, since, in December 2002, the market had already been largely reassured as to the reality and firmness of the French State’s support for FT. In view of the effects produced by the declarations from July 2002, the shareholder loan was therefore made under abnormal market conditions and thus conferred an advantage on FT. 270Moreover, it must be recalled that, although the Commission acknowledged, in recital 208 of the contested decision, that the declarations from July 2002 were ‘sufficiently clear, precise and firm for them to attest to the existence of a credible commitment on the part of the State’, it ultimately rejected the view that those declarations were to be regarded as legally binding under the relevant national law and, accordingly, characterised as aid measures committing State resources . In essence, the Commission nevertheless considered that, in the light of the impact which those declarations had produced on the perception of the markets, the French State had incurred a certain financial risk, including under national law, which gave grounds for regarding the shareholder loan proposal as incompatible with the prudent private investor criterion .
Because of the possibility of human or mechanical error as well as other factors, however, all information contained herein is provided “AS IS” without warranty of any kind. However, MOODY’S is not an auditor and cannot in every instance independently verify or validate information received in the rating process or in preparing its Publications. Bouygues’ liquidity is excellent and supported by a cash balance of EUR4.7 billion as of 31 March 2022 and access to about EUR8 billion of available committed credit lines, which cover large seasonal cash flow movements and short-term debt. Bouygues established a EUR6 billion bridge facility to fund the Equans acquisition, which Moody’s expects will be refinanced through long-term bond issuances in a timely manner to maintain the company’s excellent liquidity profile.
The business segments’ targets and plans of action focus mainly on extending the lifespan of this equipment and on the quantity and location of this data (datacenters to be located in low-carbon electricity countries, for example). After endorsement of Colas’ GHG reduction targets in 2021, the other business segments’ are now looking for the SBTib to endorse their own decarbonisation targets. Each of its business segments defined a set of quantifiable objectives aimed at reducing its greenhouse gas emissions at a pace consistent with the Paris Agreementa, and backed up by action plans.
Historique du cours de Bourse Bouygues (bouygues TELECOM)
295In the absence of any relevant and conclusive evidence adduced by the Commission and by the Bouygues companies in this connection, it is not the task of the Court to ascertain whether the announcement on 4 December 2002 of the shareholder loan proposal involved a transfer of State resources under French administrative or civil law. 271For the purpose of determining the nature of the declarations from July 2002, they must be interpreted only in the light of objective findings . The fact remains that the perception and reaction of market operators, where they are established, may provide useful indicia for the purpose of determining the nature of those declarations. 242In those circumstances, there is no need to rule on the question whether the declarations from July 2002 also involved an advantage for FT by exerting a positive influence on its share and bond prices. 202In that regard, the Commission disputes the similarity of the facts in this case to those which gave rise to the Crédit Foncier decision . In the present case, the declarations by the Minister for Economic Affairs did not have the same force and the same degree of precision as regards a firm commitment on the part of the French State as those which were the subject-matter of the Crédit Foncier decision (see recital 36 of the Crédit Foncier decision, on the one hand, and recital 219 of the contested decision, on the other).
- ‘ … he Commission has studied the question whether, under domestic law, a private investor who has made the same declarations as the State would be obliged to keep his promises.
- 337In accordance with the first subparagraph of Article 87 of the Rules of Procedure, the French Republic shall bear its own costs.
- Finally, it disputes the relevance of the comparison between Deutsche Telekom and FT, as drawn by the French Republic and FT, in order to demonstrate that the declarations from July 2002 were not decisive.
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Moreover, the duty to state adequate reasons in decisions is an essential procedural requirement which must be distinguished from the question whether the reasoning is well founded, which is concerned with the substantive legality of the measure at issue. If those grounds are vitiated by errors, the latter will vitiate the substantive legality of the decision, but not the statement of reasons in it, which may be adequate even though it sets out reasons which are incorrect (see Case C‑413/06 P Bertelsmann and Sony Corporation of America v Impala ECR I‑4951, paragraphs 166 and 181, and the case‑law cited). Above that, unlike the announcement on 4 December 2002 of the shareholder loan proposal, which made public the offer to open a EUR 9 billion credit line in favour of FT, the declarations from July 2002 had an open‑ended, imprecise and conditional character as regards the nature, scope and conditions of any future intervention by the French State. Thus, if only on the basis of that substantially different character of the declarations from July 2002, the French State’s decision in December 2002 to announce and put forward a shareholder loan proposal amounted to a significant break in the series of events which led to the refinancing of FT.
2.An action for annulment brought by a natural or legal person is not admissible unless the applicant establishes a vested and present interest in seeing the contested measure annulled. Consequently, a measure which gives full satisfaction to that person is not, by definition, capable of adversely affecting him and such a person has no interest in seeking its annulment. Launched in February 2013, France’s ultra-high-speed broadband plan aims to reach full country coverage by 2022 and thus offer high-performance Internet access to all households and businesses. In areas of high population density, private operators have committed several billion euros to deploying full-fiber networks.
Data Transformation and Governance at Bouygues Telecom
23On 12 March 2003, the opening decision was published in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJ 2003 C 57, p. 5). 18On 31 July 2003, the French Government adopted, within the Council of Ministers, a draft law providing for repeal of the requirement that the majority of FT’s capital be publicly held. 16On 4 March 2003, the operation to strengthen the capital base as envisaged by the Ambition 2005 plan was launched.
In the submission of the Bouygues companies, such vague reasoning does not justify the Commission’s refusal to characterise the declarations from July 2002 as State aid and is contrary to the requirement to state reasons. 175However, in spite of the finding that all the conditions inherent in the concept of aid within the meaning of Article 87 EC were satisfied, the Commission refused to characterise the declarations from July 2002 as State aid , on the ground that it did not have sufficient evidence to prove irrefutably the existence of such aid . In the view of the Bouygues companies, that conclusion download the final trade audiobook by joe hart is contradictory in so far as the reasons for the contested decision establishing the fulfilment of all the conditions inherent in the concept of aid were sufficient and did not require further evidence. 120In the present case, having regard to the provisions of the Treaty and in the light of the case‑law referred to in paragraphs 118 and 119 above, the French Republic, solely in its capacity as a Member State, is entitled to bring an action for annulment against Article 1 of the contested decision without being required to show a legal interest in bringing proceedings in that regard.
Secondly, they definitely had an impact on the perception which the markets and economic operators had of ’s situation in December . Inasmuch as the conduct of economic operators was itself influenced by the conduct of the State, it does not constitute an objective parameter for then judging the conduct of the State. These prior interventions must therefore be taken into account in analysing the presence of aid in the December measures. 1Until 1990, the activities engaged in by France Télécom SA (‘FT’) came under a directorate of the French Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications. FT was formed in 1991 as a public law corporation and since 31 December 1996 has had the status of a public limited company.
Bouygues S.A. — Moody’s announces completion of a periodic review of ratings of Bouygues S.A.
Being new to the business at the time, this project was quite a journey for me but one in which I’m really pleased with the results. 257In those circumstances, it must be held that the Commission was not entitled to limit itself to the finding that a contractual offer signed by ERAP existed in order to conclude that that offer involved an additional and separate advantage for FT as referred to in Article 87 EC. 248It is therefore necessary to establish, firstly, whether the Commission’s argument is sufficiently supported by the contested decision. 220It is in the light of those principles that it must be determined whether, in this case, the Commission correctly applied the concept of aid within the meaning of Article 87 EC. 138It must be observed, as a preliminary point, that some of the arguments put forward in the following paragraphs are also put forward by the French Republic and FT in their statements in intervention in Case T‑450/04. 131It must therefore be concluded that the Bouygues companies have a vested and present interest in securing the partial annulment of Article 1 of the contested decision to the extent described in paragraph 129 above.
- 336Since the Bouygues companies have been unsuccessful in their claim for annulment of Article 1 of the contested decision and there is no need to adjudicate on their claim for annulment of Article 2 of that decision, they must be ordered to bear their own costs and to pay half of the costs incurred by the Commission.
- Further to this, the Tool facilitates the collection of performance data at regular intervals, which in turn has increased accuracy and limited the risk of data fragmentation.
- Those public declarations, which were repeated, concordant and attributable to the French State, were sufficiently clear, precise and firm for them to reflect in a credible manner the latter’s unconditional commitment, in particular towards the world of finance and industry, which would have construed them thus .
- Consequently, in so far as the Commission investigates objectively relevant earlier facts, it must include them in its analysis.
Since it had available to it the report of 28 April 2004 and several reports and studies produced by third parties, including by the Bouygues companies, the Commission cannot reasonably claim that it did not have sufficient information to rule on the legal characterisation of the declarations from July 2002. On the basis of that information, the Commission could have reached a definitive characterisation of those declarations or, at the very least, should have examined the relevance of that information for the purpose of stating clear and precise reasons for the rejection of that characterisation. Even if that was not possible, the Commission should have obtained further information before concluding the administrative procedure and adopting the contested decision.
Helen Lee Bouygues
329The consequence of that annulment is the disappearance with retroactive effect of the finding of the existence of aid incompatible with the common market contained in Article 1 of the contested decision. It follows that the declaration of non‑recovery of that aid, contained in Article 2 of that decision, also loses its purpose with retroactive effect. 321As regards the alleged failure to state adequate reasons, it should be noted that the grounds of the contested decision, in particular, on the one hand, recitals 188 to 190 and, on the other, recitals 218 and 219, indicate with sufficient precision and clarity the reasons why the Commission considered itself unable to find that the declarations from July 2002 constituted, in themselves, State aid . 313Given that Article 1 of the contested decision must accordingly be annulled for error of law and manifest errors of assessment in the application of Article 87 EC, nor is there any need 4 easy steps to be a master at technical analysis to examine the first plea put forward by the French Republic and FT, alleging infringement of essential procedural requirements and the right to a fair hearing, or the fourth plea of the French Republic, alleging failure to state reasons. 300It follows from all the foregoing considerations that neither the Commission nor the Bouygues companies have demonstrated that the announcement on 4 December 2002 of the shareholder loan proposal or the offer on 20 December 2002 of the shareholder loan contract involved a transfer of State resources within the meaning of Article 87 EC. 275Contrary to what the Bouygues companies and the Commission argue , the mere fact that, at the time of the declaration of 12 July 2002, FT was already facing serious refinancing difficulties does not in any way alter either the open‑ended and vague character of that declaration as a whole or its significance in the light of the factual context in which it was made .
- Moreover, ‘in applying the concomitance criterion’ the Commission ‘cannot base the assessment of the State’s conduct on the conduct of other economic operators’ in so far as their conduct and the market were influenced by the French authorities’ declarations.
- 262It is apparent from the considerations set out in paragraphs 214 and 215 above that the advantage identified in paragraphs 234 to 259 above must derive from a transfer of State resources.
- If so, thirdly, it must be examined whether those possible advantages deriving from State resources were granted in compliance with the criterion of the prudent private investor in a market economy.
- Bouygues’ A3 rating reflects the group’s large scale; its position as one of Europe’s leading and most diversified construction groups; broadly conservative financial policy in recent years; and strong liquidity.
- 301It must however be examined whether, on the basis of its overall approach , the Commission was nevertheless entitled to assess the declarations from July 2002 in conjunction with the announcement of the shareholder loan proposal and the dispatch of the shareholder loan contract in order to conclude that the criterion of transfer of State resources was satisfied in this case.
Finally, it disputes the relevance of the comparison between Deutsche Telekom and FT, as drawn by the French Republic and FT, in order to demonstrate that the declarations from July 2002 were not decisive. 178The Commission cannot therefore content itself with asserting the innovative character of a particular application of Article 87 EC in order to refrain from finding that State aid exists. To admit the contrary would amount to acknowledging that the concept of State aid is not an evolving one, which would have the effect of depriving Article 87 EC et seq. 157In the second place, the Bouygues companies maintain that the declarations from July 2002 rendered the French State financially liable in law and in fact. 156Consequently, in the view of the Bouygues companies, so far as concerns the declarations from July 2002, the first condition of Article 87 EC, namely the conferment of an advantage, is satisfied .
Bouygues Group climate strategy update at end 2021
The assessments contained in the reasoning of the contested decision may not, as such, be the subject of an action for annulment and may be subject to judicial review by the Community judicature only if, as the reasoning of an act adversely affecting the interests of those concerned, they constitute the essential basis for its operative part. It is thus accepted that a decision which gives satisfaction to the applicant is not capable of adversely affecting him, without prejudice to the rights of the third parties concerned to bring an action for annulment against that decision. 61The French authorities’ declarations were decisive in maintaining FT’s investment-grade credit rating whereas a junk-bond rating would have made the shareholder loan more unlikely and certainly much more costly .
In applying the prudent private investor criterion, the basis of assessment must be the information the investor has at his disposal at the time he takes his investment decision. The success of the operation in April 2003 cannot therefore be taken into account in assessing the French State’s conduct in December 2002. Moreover, ‘in applying the concomitance criterion’ the Commission ‘cannot base the assessment of the State’s conduct on the conduct of other economic operators’ in so far as their conduct and the market were influenced by the French authorities’ declarations. In the Commission’s view, ‘he State’s declarations, made in July and then repeated, to the effect that it would take the necessary steps to enable to overcome its financing difficulties distort the concomitance test in so far as private investors cannot be considered to have made up their minds on the sole basis of ’s situation. The application of the principle of the prudent private investor in a market economy cannot be based on the market situation in December 2002, but must logically be based ‘on the situation of a market uncontaminated by prior declarations and interventions’ .
Rates & Bonds
In the submission of the Bouygues companies, the fact that the declarations from July 2002 constituted additional State aid is borne out by the case‑law (Case T‑11/95 BP Chemicals v Commission ECR II‑3235). That earlier aid, which is an integral part of a continuing support process, could both be penalised for itself and be taken into account, in the context of applying the private investor criterion, for the purposes of the characterisation of subsequent aid which, in view of the earlier measures, has only the appearance of an act capable of top 10 technical indicators for trading in 2021 being carried out by a prudent private investor. In the situation which gave rise to the judgment in BP Chemicals v Commission, paragraph 170, several aid measures were at issue, the first two of which made it possible to characterise the third by establishing that the prudent private investor criterion was not satisfied. That is precisely what the Bouygues companies maintain in the present case by drawing attention to the existence of several aid measures which, according to a scheme orchestrated by the French State, are linked to each other.
272As regards the declaration of 12 July 2002 , that declaration was made by the Minister for Economic Affairs, above all, in his capacity as representative of the French State qua FT’s majority shareholder (‘e are the majority shareholder …’). In that capacity, he gave the express assurance that, whatever its method of intervention might be, the French State intended to behave like a prudent investor (‘he State shareholder will behave like a prudent investor …’). In that regard, neither the Commission nor the Bouygues companies have adduced any evidence that the intention to make the French State’s future intervention subject to compliance with the prudent private investor criterion was merely a display and not genuine and serious at the time of that declaration.
According to the Commission, ‘ny failure by the State to fulfil that expectation would have directly affected its reputation in its capacity as owner, shareholder or manager of companies, whether quoted or not, and in its capacity as issuer of bonds to finance the public debt’. Consequently, those factors could ‘be deemed to actually endanger State resources’ and ‘the argument to the effect that the French authorities’ declarations July 2002 are aid is … innovative, but probably not without foundation’ . 57In the light of the declaration of 12 July and of the press releases of the French authorities of 13 September, 2 October and 4 December 2002 , the Commission concluded, in essence, that, ‘aken as a whole, these declarations be regarded as having made public the State’s intention whereby, if had any financing problems or financial difficulties, it, the State, would do whatever was necessary to overcome them’ and as making plain the State’s commitment in that regard. Those public declarations, which were repeated, concordant and attributable to the French State, were sufficiently clear, precise and firm for them to reflect in a credible manner the latter’s unconditional commitment, in particular towards the world of finance and industry, which would have construed them thus . Moreover, in addition to those public declarations, the French authorities also contacted the ‘main market operators’, such as S & P , in order to inform them of their intentions and rapidly restore market confidence, thereby preventing the downgrading of FT’s debt rating to junk-bond status .
176As regards insufficient reasoning, the Bouygues companies raise the point that the refusal to characterise the declarations from July 2002 as State aid is based on insufficient reasoning. The Commission first acknowledged, in recitals 188 and 218 of the contested decision, the possibility of characterising those declarations as aid by considering it however to be an ‘argument … innovative, but probably not without foundation’. In recitals 189 and 219 of that decision, the Commission nevertheless stated that it did not have ‘sufficient evidence … to establish irrefutably the existence of aid on the basis of this innovative argument’.
