Bidders for Maynilad Water Services, a troubled Philippine company being auctioned off next week by the government, expressed disappointment at Manila's failure to resolve a dispute with Suez over what some consider to be the French utility's extraordinary rights as minority shareholder. Suez holds only 16 per cent of Maynilad but has the power to block key corporate decisions - the legacy of a shareholder agreement from 1997 when the French owned 40 per cent of a company that provides water to 8m residents in western Manila.