France to sell stake in world's largest airline
The French government today said was to sell a 17.7% stake in Air France-KLM, the world’s largest airline, in a move that would help the state reduce its debt and scale back its influence on the Franco-Dutch carrier.
A Finance Ministry spokeswoman said the government asked two banks, France’s Societe General SA and the Netherlands’ ABN Amro Holding NV, to handle the sale of the stake involving some 48 million shares.
Using yesterday’s closing price as a benchmark, the 17.7% stake would be worth about €693m.
Air France-KLM shares fell 1.6% in early trading today.
The French state lost majority control of Air France earlier this year as a result of the company’s merger with KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. Before today’s sale, the state still owned 44% of the joint company; with the sell-off, its stake will decline to about 26%.
The government has indicated it eventually plans to cut its share to about 20%, and Finance Minister Herve Gaymard said the latest sell-off came today “because we felt the market conditions were right”.
The sale was the latest in an ongoing effort by the French government to sell off assets to reduce debt.
Earlier this year, it sold stakes in state-owned jet engine maker Snecma and in France Telecom, and the government has said it planned to sell holdings in the Electricite de France utility and nuclear engineering group Areva next year.
