For Danone it's more of a growing ambition. They've depleted water sources in France at multiple times and have declared aiming for more engagement on the African market for the next decades [0]. Their involvement is more in partnership with Veolia which holds the main contracts [1], so I should have put Veolia forward for more clarity, but I see Danone as just not being good enough at this game to be shunned at the bigger players' level.
> nor France itself (private companies, Swiss or French, aren't "France")
These companies aren't existing in a vacuum, and the French government will protect these interests when shit hits the fan. Veolia in particular is basically a private arm managing a critical field that should be government managed in any other setting.
It would be like saying that Lockheed Martin is a private company that doesn't involve the USA, when the government will bend over backward to protect these interests.
> nor France itself (private companies, Swiss or French, aren't "France")
These companies aren't existing in a vacuum, and the French government will protect these interests when shit hits the fan. Veolia in particular is basically a private arm managing a critical field that should be government managed in any other setting.
It would be like saying that Lockheed Martin is a private company that doesn't involve the USA, when the government will bend over backward to protect these interests.
[0] https://www.lemonde.fr/economie/article/2016/02/23/danone-pr...
[1] https://www.veoliawatertech.com/fr/ressources/articles/danon...