The French Economy Minister, Bruno Le Maire, had also announced it to Italian journalists on the occasion of his participation in the Ambrosetti Forum in Cernobbio: in addition to the Fincantieri dossier, for France, September is a decisive month on the double front of labor reform and privatisation, for which President Macron has requested a vast plan, which concerns several of the most important companies across the Alps. The schedule, if all goes according to plan, it will bring 10 billion euros to the State coffers, which will be invested in a maxi fund for innovation, the most ambitious that a European country has ever launched: "The taxpayer - said Le Maire - must know that his money is invested for the future, and not for the past".
To open the dances, last Tuesday, was the operation Engie: a 4,5% stake in the energy group was sold for 1,53 billion, which will allow Paris to remain the reference shareholder with 24,1% of the stake and 27,6% of the right to vote in the meeting. Now two other key companies are entering the eye of the storm: the TLC Orange, a giant in the sector with almost 200 million customers worldwide and a market capitalization of 21,63 billion euros, and the historic car manufacturer Renault, of which the French State holds 23,1% and 15% respectively.
The core of the problem, however, always remains the same and it is the same one that is presenting itself in the complicated Fincantieri-Stx negotiation: to make the need to raise cash coincide with that of preserve national interests in companies that are undoubtedly strategic, for their value, for the sector in which they operate and for the workforce to be protected. This is why at the moment, reaching the 10 billion quota still seems far away: in the meantime, even Aéroports de Paris and the Française des Jeux, the company that manages games, lotteries and bets of which the Transalpine Treasury holds 72%.
But the companies in which Bercy has a stake are 81 and important ones appear such as SNCF (the railway company), EDF, Air France itself, for a total worth around 100 billion. Among these is Stx France itself, which could largely end up in Italian hands (in Fincantieri), and on which Macron and Le Maire they have already opposed a certain reluctance to grant the majority package, even if in the end the operation will somehow go through. According to the French press, however, the holdings in Safran, Thales and Areva, giants of aeronautics, aerospace and IT and nuclear power respectively, are considered essential and will certainly not be affected.
