Veolia Environnement operates hundreds of private water projects that serve an estimated 110 million people worldwide. Until 2002, Veolia, formerly known as Vivendi Environnement, was a wholly-owned subsidiary of Vivendi Universal, and as such was swirling in a maelstrom of corporate corruption and chaos. Bribery convictions, raids on corporate offices by evidence-seeking securities investigators, class action suits filed by shareholders on both sides of the Atlantic, collapses in both its stock price and its credit rating, massive debt necessitating a fire-sale of assets, a discredited and ultimately ousted corporate chieftain, dizzying financial uncertainty, an identity crisis—little wonder that Veolia has scrambled to distance itself from its former corporate parent.

But whatever distance the water company manages to put between itself and Vivendi in the eyes of the financial community, the company can’t distance itself from its record—a record reflecting a corporation that views water as an opportunity for monopoly profits. While Veolia’s focus remains on developed urban markets in Europe, the U.S., and Asia, the corporation is hedging its bets with increasingly substantive roles in service delivery in the developing world, often in collusion with the World Bank.

Read the Corporate Profile on Veolia Environnement.