Bourse beckons the French

Press, 2 December 1987, Page 43

Bourse beckons the French

NZPA-Reuter Paris, An ambitious privatisation programme has converted shareownership into a mass phenonemon in France, making it the second largest nation of small shareholders after the United States, according to a report published on Monday. Some 9.5 million French people — or one in six — now hold stocks or bonds, triple the number a year ago, according to estimates published by the Bourse advisory committee (GOJB.). The United States, with 47M shareholders or one American out of five, heads the list. Estimates put the number of Japanese shareholders at around 8.5 M, with Britain possibly as high as 9M, although some studies have suggested a lower figure. The French, who have traditionally shown little interest in stock trading in the past, flooded to the Bourse to take advantage of bargain issue prices when the conservative Government’s privatisation programme began last year. Finance Minister, Mr Edouard Balladur, said last month between five and six million people had bought shares since the programme was launched. The Prime Minister Jacques Chirac’s Government plans to sell to the private sector some 65 groups and insurance companies by 1992. About a third of the programme has been completed, bringing 62.58 francs ($NZ18B) into the

State coffers. But the recent slump in stock markets has forced the Government to rethink its privatisation strategy. Mr Balladur said on November 10 that the planned sale of insurance group Union des Assurances de Paris (UAP), originally scheduled for next month, would not start before early next year. Mr Balladur had previously announced that the sale of the State’s 51 per cent stake in defence electronics group Matra, planned for late October, would be Indefinitely postponed. A C. 0.8. spokeswoman said the report was based on July data, well before the Bourse turmoil. But analysts said that most small investors had hung on to their holdings and that the number of small shareholders had remained basically stable despite the slump.