Veolia/Transdev deal cleared by French authorities

PARIS Dec 30 (Reuters) - French competition authorities approved plans by French utility Veolia (VIE.PA) and France's Caisse des Depots to merge their transport business, creating a group which aims to float in the coming year.

The deal involves the tie-up of Veolia Transport and Transdev, which is 70 percent owned by CDC, leaving Veolia to focus on its core waste and environment business and remove some debt from its balance sheet.

An initial public offering of the new group was originally envisaged for late this year but CDC Chief Executive Augustine de Romanet said in the spring the group's bourse debut could come any time between early 2011 and early 2012.

The regulatory decision means the two companies will create a new group with sales of 8 billion euros ($10.6 billion), which will rival France's SNCF and the new business created by Deutsche Bahn [DBN.UL] and Arriva (ARI.L).

As part of its approval, the French competition authority required Veolia and Transdev to sell some businesses and take other measures to preserve competition in certain regions in France.

"The authority believes that the concentration planned presents certain competition risks in the urban and non-urban public transport market outside of the Paris region," the French competition authority said in a statement. (Reporting by Astrid Wendlandt; Editing by David Holmes) ($1=.7564 Euro)