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It is part of the British mythology that the Suez Canal company was French. Since the project was in Egypt and required the approval of the viceroy (and the ratification by the Sultan) it necessarily had to be an Egyptian company. According to its statutes (≈ Memorandum and Articles of Association), its "siège = seat" (≈ registered office) was in Alexandria, only its administrative headoffice was in Paris. Lesseps had intended it to be a "universal" company not under any specific national influence. One has to keep in mind that at that time, company law was in its early stages and that a similar concept has only recently been made possible on a narrower scale by the Societas Europaea. Lesseps offered the shares to investors in the whole world (in the sense of those days), i.e. in Europe (including Britain!), Russia and the U.S.A. Only after investors from most other countries were reluctant, the company turned out to have a majority of French private investors (and the viceroy saw no alternative but to subscribe for the remainder of the shares).
Napoléon III of France (his wife Eugénie de Montijo was related to Lesseps) helped Lesseps in his difficulties (caused mainly by the British government) but did not invest in the company. For a British historian's view refer to Arnold T. Wilson, The Suez Canal on Google Books. --AHert (talk) 20:06, 6 December 2009 (UTC)[reply
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