French Finance Minister Herve Gaymard today unveiled a rapid roads-privatisation programme and set out a timetable for three major energy sell-offs this year.
France will sell shares in Société des Autoroutes du Nord et de l'Est de la France (SANEF), Europe's fourth-largest roads operator, by the beginning of April, Mr Gaymard said.
"If the conditions are right, we will be able to introduce Gaz de France onto the stock exchange by the summer, (nuclear firm) Areva by the end of the summer and (power utility) EDF by the end of the year," Mr Gaymard told a news conference on his economic policy agenda for the year.
The politically sensitive EDF privatisation is expected to be one of the world's largest. Power workers staged a 24-hour strike today to protest about the plans, shutting down 6 per cent of French generation capacity and forcing EDF to buy in external supplies to meet the shortfall.
The roads sell-off will be France's third after southern toll-road network ASF and Autoroutes Paris Rhin Rhone, which was floated in November. SANEF operates about 1,700 kilometres of toll roads from Strasbourg to Normandy.
AFP