Initially, French investors held half of the Company's stock, with Egypt's ruler Sa'id Pasha holding most of the balance.

In 1875, financial distress forced Sa'id's successor Isma'il Pasha to sell the country's shares to the government of the United Kingdom.

[5] Following the granting of the first concession in 1854, Lesseps was in near constant travel to assemble diplomatic approvals perceived as necessary to build the canal from other foreign governments involved.

Since Britain – through the policy of Lord Palmerston – was largely opposed to the canal project, and its citizens owned a potentially competing project in form of a railroad from Alexandria to Cairo, not to mention various merchant warehouses along the African sea route, Lesseps made several trips to Britain between 1854 and 1858 to persuade Palmerston and the British public.

[6] In late Spring of 1858, the French Academy of Sciences released a public report approving of the engineering plans for the canal.

In October 1858, Lesseps notified international press and company agents that 400,000 shares at a price of 500 francs each would be publicly offered beginning 5 November 1858.

In the notification, Lesseps estimated an annual revenue of 30 million francs based on freight fees, and a construction period lasting 6 years.

In addition to infrastructure challenges, Said would not allow the use of massive corvée labour until 1861, when Napoleon III publicly backed the canal project.

In the meantime from 1859 to 1861, the company's Chief Engineer Eugène Mougel and its new superintendent Alphonse Hardon, planned for and built fresh water distilleries along the route, hauled in additional fresh water from the Nile, built housing for workers, gathered stone for the jetty, assembled some aging dredging equipment from the Nile, and looked for workers.

Plans were made for an access canal from the Nile to Lake Timsah to provide fresh water.

After the use of corvée labor was approved in 1861, work proceeded south from Lake Manzala with, at its height, 60,000 fellahin hand digging the canal.

François Philippe Voisin became chief engineer in January 1861 and Hardon's contract expired at the end of 1862.

[8] Said died in mid-January 1863, and in late-January, just before Ismail began the process of establishing himself as the new viceroy of Egypt by Ottoman Sultan Abdul Aziz, Ismail declared that he was establishing reforms in the ways of the creation of a civil service list and the abolishment of corvée labor.

Ismail would soon issue a clarification that corvée labor could still be used for public works essential for the common good (though not on the Suez Canal project).

It wasn't until July 1864 that Napoleon III released a ruling for the framework for resolution which accepted the 1856 concession as a binding contract, ended the use of corvée labor, placed the land grants back into the hands of the Egyptian government, but called for remuneration of 84 million francs to the Suez Canal Company for violation of the labor and land agreements.

Ultimately, Borel, Lavalley and company removed 75% of the 74 million cubic meters excavated from the main canal.

During this same year the company had already started to charge fees for transport of goods across the northern almost-completed portion to the separate southern access canal, garnering millions of francs in annual revenue.

[14] Politically during this period, company workers experienced a cholera outbreak in 1865 that caused the deaths of several hundred Europeans, including Voisin's wife, and more than 1,500 Arabs and Egyptians.

Prior to that, hand digging was used to remove soil in the remaining 10 miles between Suez and the southern dam.

The multinational flotilla of about 60 ships proceeded south from Port Said to Ismailia, where a large expenses-paid festivity took place including: a riding exhibition, a rifle competition, tight-rope walking, an Armenian with a dancing bear, an Italian with a hurdy-gurdy, Arab sword dancing, glassblowing, flame eating, snake charming, juggling, dancing darvishes, belly dancers, Koran recitations, Arabic poetry recitations, prostitution, food, and drink.

Société Générale was interested in his shares of the Suez Canal Company in exchange for paying off the debt instalment, however, the British prime minister Benjamin Disraeli responded quickly and with permission from parliament and Queen Victoria received a £4 million loan from Lionel de Rothschild to purchase the 177,000 shares from Ismail on behalf of the British government.

By December 1875 Britain became the largest shareholder of the Suez Canal Company, owning 44 percent of the shares.

In response to an anti-European riot in 1882, Britain landed an army, seized the canal, and developed a protectorate over Egypt, placing Lord Cromer as the head governing authority.

Egypt was declared an independent country in 1922, however, Britain still asserted a right to defend the canal and stationed troops there for that purpose into the 1930s.

[29] King Farouk of the Muhammad Ali line was overthrown in a military coup in 1952 and Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser eventually emerged as the leader of Egypt.

In response to the World Bank denying a loan to build a dam across the Nile at Aswan, Nasser declared on 26 July 1956 that Egypt was nationalizing the canal.

In response, Britain, France, and Israel attacked Egypt and destroyed large portions of Port Said.

Following its nationalization in 1982 and privatization in 1987, the Suez Company in 1988 successfully participated in a takeover battle for control of the Société Générale de Belgique, which significantly broadened its portfolio of activities.

The opulent building at 1, rue d'Astorg was built for the Suez canal Company in 1911-1913 on a design by architect Henri Paul Nénot.

[32] Following the Suez Company's merger with Lyonnaise des eaux, it was sold to the real estate arm of General Electric and renovated in the early 2000s.