By Benjamin Mallet
PARIS, Oct 21 (Reuters) - For so long the faithful servant of his boss, Antoine Frerot has been rewarded for his loyalty with promotion to the chief executive post at French water utility Veolia Environnement.
Veolia said on Wednesday Frerot, 51, would become its CEO provided current Chairman and Chief Executive Henri Proglio takes over as head of French power group EDF as is widely expected.
Like many top French executives, Frerot -- who is married with three children -- attended the elite Polytechnique and Ecole des Ponts & Chaussees higher educational establishments, obtaining a PhD in civil engineering.
Those who studied at these two institutions are known in France as "X-Ponts" -- a term that carries the same weight as affiliations to Oxbridge or the Ivy League in Britain and the United States.
Yet it is his record within the company which seems to have set him apart from colleagues, many of whom share the same educational background.
"If he was chosen among the four divisional heads of Veolia, who are all X-Ponts, it's no doubt because he was the most loyal," a Veolia board member told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
After leaving university, Frerot worked in various public sector bodies in France. He joined Generale des Eaux -- one of the early incarnations of the current Veolia group -- in 1990.
A solid decade of hard work made him chief executive of Veolia Transport in 2000. In 2003, he became head of Veolia's main water business and joined the management board.
Analysts at Exane BNP Paribas and CM-CIC Securities view Frerot as a safe pair of hands whose appointment should be well received by investors.
Yet he faces challenges aplenty.
One of Frerot's main tasks will be to implement Veolia's 2010 strategy programme, under which the company aims to sell 3 billion euros ($4.5 billion) of assets and cut its costs and debt burden.
He will also have to oversee a planned merger between Veolia Transport and Transdev, creating a new transport company which could end up being listed on the stock market next year.
In addition, Frerot will have to examine whether or not EDF ends up increasing its stake in Veolia -- a mix of tasks which will call on all his corporate experience and educational finesse.
"He's someone with experience of the industry," an analyst at Exane BNP Paribas said. "He has a pretty positive track record at Veolia, he's not seen as someone who will go on a mad acquisition spree and he knows local governments well." (Writing by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by David Holmes) ($1=.6697 Euro)