Veolia boosts its activities in the Middle East, targeting 50 % growth by 2030

During French President Emmanuel Macron's state visit to Saudi Arabia, Veolia unveils its growth ambitions in the Middle East, a geographic booster of the GreenUp strategic plan.

Committed to the region for over fifty years, the Group leverages its international expertise and capacity for innovation to facilitate the deployment of cutting-edge, tailor-made solutions, particularly in the fields of water treatment, hazardous waste, and decarbonizing local energy. After achieving sales of 1.1 billion euros in 2023 in the Middle East, Veolia is now aiming for + 50 % growth by 2030. 

This acceleration is based in particular on a genuine awareness of the effects of climate change in the region. According to the 2024 Ecological Transformation Barometer conducted by Veolia, 86% of Saudi residents (+22 points compared to 2022) and 81% of Emirati residents (+20 points compared to 2022) now consider climate change to be a reality.

To meet the challenge of ecological transformation in the Middle East, continuing to offer its municipal and industrial customers innovative solutions that meet their needs and fueling its ambitions in terms of growth, Veolia relies on its international expertise and its ability to adapt its innovations to local issues.

In the water sector, at a time when the Middle East is having to adapt to the consequences of climate change and cope with the increasing scarcity of water resources, Veolia offers comprehensive support for the water cycle. The Group innovates to offer a mix of solutions for reusing water resources, supporting the most water-consuming industries in their activities, and successfully carrying out large desalination projects. The development of desalination capacities, which represent a potential market of $97 billion between 2024 and 2028¹, is essential, as they are today part of the mix of solutions needed to cope with the increasing scarcity of water resources. 
Veolia is supplying its cutting-edge technologies to the Hassyan desalination plant (United Arab Emirates), the second largest in the world, supplying water to 2 million people; to the Hamriyah plant, supplying drinking water to 1.4 million people; and to the Mirfa 2 plant, supplying drinking water to 210,000 households in the United Arab Emirates. The Group also equips the Sur plant in Oman with its reverse osmosis technologies, and the Sadara-Marafiq plant in Saudi Arabia, which has been operating since 2016 to supply industrial water to the Jubail petrochemical complex. With an order book that is already full. On desalination, Veolia plans to grow twice as fast as the market over the coming years.

Veolia is also stepping up its efforts to decarbonize the region by offering solutions for treating municipal, industrial and hazardous waste and producing local decarbonizing energy. In this area, for example, the Group is working alongside Tarshid, the Saudi Standards, Metrology and Quality organization, on the country's first energy performance contract, which, thanks to a series of measures to optimize cooling systems, will deliver 30% energy savings and avoid 4,630 tonnes of CO2 emissions every year. 
By 2023, 4.1 million tons of industrial waste had been processed in the area, 149 MW of district cooling capacity installed and 656 GWh of electricity saved alongside Enova since 2019, the joint venture created by Majid Al Futtaim and Veolia back in 2002.

“The Middle East is a key region for Veolia, to the point that we have decided to make it a geographical growth booster for our GreenUp 24-27 strategic plan. Faced with the scarcity of water resources, which is particularly intense in the region, the stakes are immense. As a world leader in water technologies, we have a major role in supporting Middle Eastern countries in the implementation of solutions to mitigate and adapt to climate change. Desalination, a booming market, represents a major opportunity whose growth is set to continue in the coming years. Our innovations in this field, as well as in REUSE technologies, decarbonizing local energy production and hazardous waste treatment, confirm our position as a global champion of ecological transformation, to best support local players and build a desirable future in the region”, says Estelle Brachlianoff, Veolia's Chief Executive Officer.

¹ _{Including OPEX and CAPEX - GWI Desalsata}

ABOUT VEOLIA

Veolia's ambition is to become the benchmark company for ecological transformation. Present on five continents with nearly 218,000 employees, the Group designs and deploys useful and concrete solutions for water, waste and energy management that help to radically change the game. Through its three complementary activities, Veolia contributes to developing access to resources, preserving available resources and renewing them. In 2023, the Veolia group served 113 million people with drinking water and 103 million with wastewater services, produced 42 terawatt-hours of energy and recovered 63 million metric tons of waste. Veolia Environnement (Paris Euronext: VIE) generated consolidated sales of 45.3 billion euros in 2023.