http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-03-04/sarkozy-plans-to-tighten-grip-on-french-state-owned-companies.html
French President Nicolas Sarkozy plans to expand government control over state-owned companies, naming board members to represent its interests and increasing financing to manufacturers in a bid to stem industrial decline.
“The state must completely overhaul its shareholder’s role in the big industrial companies,” Sarkozy said today in southern France, according to a copy of a speech e-mailed by his office. “The state will now be represented by at least two administrators in each company it has shares in,” he said.
The state is the majority shareholder in Aeroports de Paris SA, Electricite de France SA and Areva SA. It’s the biggest investor in France Telecom SA, Air France-KLM, Thales SA, GDF Suez SA, Renault SA, and shipmaker STX France.
Sarkozy’s push follows criticism of Renault, in which the government holds a 15 percent stake, for moving jobs to lower- cost countries. In January, Sarkozy said he “doesn’t accept” that Renault has two-thirds of its employees outside the country, while rival automaker PSA Peugeot Citroen has two- thirds of its workers in France.
