FRANCE WATCH: Macron Opts for 'Temporary' Takeover of Shipyard

--STX France to Be Nationalized to Protect Strategic Interests

By Jack Duffy

     PARIS (MNI) - The French government has decided to nationalize the STX

France shipyards, in a move that contrasts sharply with new French President

Emmanuel Macron's free-market campaign stance.

     Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told a press conference in Paris on

Thursday that the move was a temporary nationalization in order to buy time to

find another solution.

     STX France "will remain under the control of the state," Le Maire told

journalists. "We want to liberate the exceptional productive capacity of our

country, but we also want to protect our strategic interests." 

     The state takeover will prevent the shipyard from falling into the hands of

the Italian state-owned shipbuilder Fincantieri, which in May agreed to pay

E79.5 million for a 66% stake in the company. STX France was being sold

following the collapse last year of its South Korean parent STX.

     According to the French daily Le Monde, the government was concerned about

job losses at the shipyards at the Saint-Nazaire site on the Atlantic coast if

the Italian company took control and about the site's strategic importance. STX

France is only shipyard in France with the capacity to build large warships like

aircraft carriers. 

     Macron was elected on a promise to liberalize France's economy and to

lighten the hand of the government in industry. He has also promised to sell off

non-strategic holdings in French companies. 

     But Macron has not been afraid to throw the state's weight around when he

judged it necessary. As economy minister in 2015, he forced through a

shareholder vote to increase the government's influence over French carmaker

Renault against wishes of Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn.

--MNI Paris Bureau; tel: +33 1-42-71-55-41; email: jack.duffy@marketnews.com