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Cairo Metro - Egypt

Sogelerg,
an electrical and civil engineering company resulting from the

merger of two French industrial giants

Sogelerg was the result of the merger, initiated in 1966, between two French giants of the electricity and civil
engineering sectors: the CGE (Compagnie générale d’électricité) and the SGE (Société générale d’entreprises),
now Vinci. Founded in 1898 and 1908 respectively, both groups had their own consulting engineering
businesses which each one had brought together into a single company: Cegelerg (Compagnie générale
d'études électriques - 1947) in the case of the CGE and Sogei (Société générale d'exploitations industrielles -
1923) in the case of the SGE. When the two giants teamed up, they amalgamated their consulting engineering
subsidiaries to form Sogelerg in 1971. Employing some 200 people, the new business focused in its early
days on three core markets inherited from its founding shareholders: industrial facilities; the production and
distribution of electricity; and civil engineering and transport infrastructure.
The appointment of Pierre Suard at the helm of Sogelerg in 1973 was a turning point for the company.
The new leader encouraged the young company to spread its wings and to assert itself under its own name as
a modern engineering firm capable of competing with the very best consulting engineering firms of the time.
And it was not long before the order books were filling up, in particular with assignments in the international
arena at a time when developing countries were receiving substantial funding for their infrastructure
projects. Sogelerg typically operated within consortiums of French firms on these major international
projects - companies such as electrical engineers Sofrelec, highway engineers Ingéroute and underground
transit engineers Interinfra. Back in France, the company was expanding its footprint with the creation of
several regional subsidiaries: Sogelerg Sud-Ouest based in Bordeaux and Toulouse, Sogelerg Sud-Est in Aix-
en-Provence, and a third subsidiary covering the greater Nantes area.

18 I ARTELIA, 10 YEARS OF EXISTENCE, 100 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE