Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute

Politically and economically, the European Union has been struggling to keep itself together. In recent months, numerous high-level government officials from several European nations have been courting foreign institutional investors to buy government bonds, allocate money to EFSF investments, and invest in capital increases in large scale European companies. Some government officials have been trying to arrange deals to sell public assets to foreign state-owned enterprises (SOE). For example, the Chinese state-owned China Ocean Shipping (Group) Company (COSCO) purchased the rights to a Greek container port in Piraeus for 35 years with an option for an additional 5 years for €3.4 billion. Some Greek dockworkers were not happy with the financial arrangement as labor rates changed and around 16% of workers were let go or forced into early retirement.[Content protected for Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute Standard subscribers only. Please subscribe to view site content.]

Wall Street Journal reports, “Areva SA is poised to raise some €1 billion ($1.44 billion) by selling its stake in a French nickel-mining firm, people familiar with the matter said, in what would be the latest move by the French nuclear-power group to raise money for a vast nuclear plant renewal plan and expansion into alternative energies. The state-owned Areva plans to sell its 25.78% stake in Eramet to France’s Fonds Strategique d’Investissement — a sovereign fund created last year by the French government to help strategically important companies — by the end of the first quarter, according to one of the people familiar with the matter. Spokespeople for Areva and Eramet declined to comment.”

read more: Wall Street Journal

Reuters reports, “France’s FSI strategic investment fund could buy stakes in assets that French nuclear reactor supplier Areva is selling, the fund’s head told Les Echos newspaper.

Asked about Areva’s power Transmission & Distribution (T&D) unit and its minority stakes in mining group Eramet and chipmaker STMicroelectronics, Gilles Michel said, ‘Regarding Eramet, the FSI is obviously one of the possible shareholders, but there are other players. It’s exactly the same answer for STMicroelectronics and for T&D.’

On Wednesday, the FSI raised its stake in Technip, a builder of refineries and pipelines, to 5 percent from 2.6 percent. Michel told Les Echos the FSI spent 90 million euros $130.5 million on the Technip investment.”

read more: Reuters