News In Brief

On the heels of its purchase of one US water-treatment company, the French conglomerate Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux announced it will acquire another. In a cash deal, Suez said it is paying $4.1 billion for Nalco Chemical Co. of Naperville, Ill., which has a staff of 7,000 employees and provides on-site services to clients in 120 countries. On June 15, through a subsidiary, Suez bought Calgon Corp. of Pittsburgh for $425 million. Suez, with annual revenues of about $35 billion, also has communications, waste-disposal, and energy units.

In a deal creating one of the Midwest's larger natural gas companies, Wisconsin Energy Corp. said it will buy the holding company WICOR, Inc., for $1.27 billion in cash and stock. WICOR subsidiaries are engaged in the marketing and distribution of gas as well as manufacturing pumps, fluid-handling, and filtration equipment. Both companies are based in Milwaukee.