The French financial market reglator AMF ruled that Artemis, the holding company of French billionaire Francois Pinault, cannot launch a takeover bid for utility group Suez for the next six months.

The decision followed a statement from Artemis that while it had secured financing to mount a bid for Suez it would refrain from doing so because the current market environment was not "sufficiently calm."

In its comment later Friday, the AMF said that under a provision of French legislation on takeovers, Artemis, barring a major change in the shareholding at Suez, "will not be able ... to put forward an offer for Suez before the expiration of a period of six months starting today."

The AMF, which had given Artemis until February 2 to state publicly its intentions regarding Suez, determined that the Artemis statement Friday constituted a response to the deadline.

Suez, a private water, sanitation and energy group, is in the process of merging with state-controlled gas utility Gaz de France, a deal that will require the privatization of GDF.

But the merger has been complicated by the interest expressed in Suez by Pinault, a prominent French business figure whose family controls the luxury group PPR and who is close to President Jacques Chirac.

The French government is actively backing the Suez-GDF merger as a means of creating a national energy "champion." Its announcement of the planned tie-up last February was widely seen as a move to thwart a bid for Suez by Italian electricity group Enel.

Suez shares fell 0.89 percent to close Friday at 38.01 euros on a Paris market that gained 1.07 percent.