![]() ![]() Without shares to swap, France's state-owned companies find it difficult to play this game. * As the European Community moves to form a barrier-free market in 1992, many companies are rushing to form cross-border alliances, often through an exchange of share holdings. This often makes it hard to obtain capital for investments or acquisitions. * Not wanting to see its control diluted, the state restricts these companies from selling stock to the public. ![]() Indeed, Karl Marx could never have foreseen some of the obstacles they face: ''I attribute it to worldwide economic recovery and to France's policy of wage restraint, which has helped profit margins in publicly traded and state-owned corporations.''Īlthough the state-owned sector is flying high, many executives and economists say the nationalized companies could find it difficult to maintain their competitiveness over the long term. ''Some people in Government say these companies are doing so well because they are state-owned,'' said Edmond Alphandery, an economics professor and spokesman for the center-right Democratic Union of the Center. The conservative opposition, not surprisingly, contends that these companies would be doing even better if they were in private hands. ''It's as simple as that.''Įxecutives at the nationalized companies say they have succeeded largely because the Socialist Government has given them a long leash and an emphatic, un-Socialist-sounding mandate: Be profitable or else. ![]() ''The mandate of the state is to make our companies succeed,'' he said. Fourtou said he runs his company much as he would a private concern: slashing costs by layoffs and other means, expanding overseas, pouring money into research and development. ![]()
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