The next time you fly into Paris, you may be landing at a privatized airport. That’s the plan of the administration of President Emmanuel Macron. The new president and his allies want to privatize a large chunk of the 81 companies in which the government has ownership stakes. They appear to be focused on Aéroports de Paris (ADP), operator of Paris Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports as a starting place. David Keohane reports in FT:
France owns 50.6 per cent of ADP, which has a market capitalisation of €15.6bn. The next largest shareholder is Vinci, the French construction and infrastructure operator, with 8 per cent.
The state agency that manages France’s holdings, Agence des participations de l’Etat, said “no decision has been taken by the government on possible changes in the capital of ADP”.
The privatization of companies like ADP is directly in line with the modernization platform Macron ran on in the presidential election. In the past France has seen aggressive protests against privatizing companies. Watch close to see whether a France that elected a reformer like Macron is ready to take the medicine prescribed to achieve his goals.
