Agence des participations de l'État (, APE, ), created in 2004 under the government of Jean-Pierre Raffarin, is the French agency responsible for managing the State's shareholdings in companies of strategic importance. As of 2022, APE has €732.514 billion worth of assets under management, which includes investments in companies involved in energy, industry, defence, transport, communication and finance, among others.
History The State participation agency is a Service à compétence nationale (service with national competence) created in September 2004. The creation of the Agency responded to the need to clarify the role of a shareholder of the State and the promotion of its patrimonial interests alongside the regulatory functions, tax collection, sectoral supervision, buyer that the State exercises.
This first step provided the State with a structure embodying and exclusively exercising its role as a shareholder. The second step was to endow the APE with greater autonomy. The appointment of a State Equity Commissioner, reporting directly to the French Ministry of the Economy and Finance, completed the process. Since May 2017, the APE has 88 companies in its portfolio.
Since 2001, the activity of the State shareholder has been traced every year in a report appended to the draft Loi de finances en France (Finance law in France).
Operations The main operations carried out by the agency were: 2003 Merger of Air-France and KLM Transformation of DCN into a public limited company in 2003, which became Naval Group in 2017 2004 Transformation of France Telecom into a public limited company in 2004, which became Orange in 2006 2005 Merger between SNECMA and SAGEM, which became Safran in 2005 Opening of the capital of EDF with nearly 5 million subscriptions from individuals Initial public offering of Gaz de France and its listing on CAC 40 Transformation of ADP into a public limited company 2006 Opening of the capital and the IPO of Aéroports de Paris in 2006 with 2.6M orders Disposal of Société des autoroutes du Nord et de l'Est de la France, Autoroutes Paris-Rhin-Rhône and Autoroutes du Sud de la France 2007 Entry of Thales into the capital of DCN 2008 Merger between Gaz de France and Suez to create the GDF-Suez group which became Engie in 2015 2010 Merger of the two tunnel boring companies SFTRF and ATMB Transformation of La Poste into a public limited company 2012 Recapitalization of Dexia 2013 Takeover of the debt of the EPFR – Établissement public de financement et de restructuration (Public financing and restructuring institution) contracted vis-à-vis Crédit Lyonnais Creation of the Bpifrance (BPI) 2014 Acquisition of a stake in PSA Peugeot Citroën Acquisition of a stake in Marseille Provence Airport 2015 Restructuring of the nuclear sector started with EDF, Areva and Orano Restructuring of the land armaments sector with the merger of Nexter and Krauss-Maffei Wegmann to form KNDS 2017 Merger between Safran and Zodiac Aérospace Provisional nationalization of the Chantiers de l'Atlantique of Saint-Nazaire 2018 Reform of the public broadcasting New Railway Pact 2019 Privatization of La Française des Jeux 2023 Elimination of GIAT Industries from the SNPE-Eurenco structure 2024 Acquisition of 80% stake in Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN)
Goal The four missions of the Agency are as follows: Foster the economic performance of companies, their profitability and their long-term development; Act as a wise shareholder in corporate governance companies; Manage the portfolio of investments through acquisitions, disposals or shareholder mergers; Promote the exemplarity and social and environmental responsibility of companies.
The agency exercises the usual responsibilities of shareholders. In particular, the members of the agency represent the State on the boards of directors. The agency "ensures a sufficient level of control in companies operating in sectors that are particularly sensitive in terms of sovereignty". It enforces political decisions in corporate governance, such as feminization, and executive compensation.
Since 2017, the Agency has revised its shareholder strategy. From now on, the State is intended to be a shareholder in three types of companies: strategic companies which contribute to sovereignty (defense and nuclear), companies participating in public service missions or of national or local general interest for which regulation would be insufficient to preserve public interests and ensure public service missions, companies in difficulty whose disappearance could lead to a systemic risk.
Direction The successive directors have been: Denis Samuel-Lajeunesse appointed general manager of the State participation agency on 15 September 2004 Bruno Bézard appointed director general of the state participation agency on 26 February 2007 Jean-Dominique Comolli appointed Commissioner for State Investments on 15 September 2010 David Azéma appointed Commissioner for State Investments on 1 September 2012 Régis Turrini appointed Commissioner for State Investments on 1 September 2014 Martin Vial appointed Commissioner for State Investments on 24 August 2015.
For the performance of its missions, the APE has a tight team of 53 people, mostly civil servants. As of 1 July 2019, it had 27 senior executives and investment managers (General management and investment management) traditionally from engineering bodies (44%), but also, in order to diversify profiles, from other bodies. (30% civil administrators, 33% civil servants from other bodies – INSEE, Banque de France, IGF, Cour des comptes) or contract employees. Nearly 30% of the senior managers of the APE are also graduates of a major business school. The areas of expertise (financial, legal, audit and accounting and communication), support functions and secretariats employ 26 people.
List of firms Resulting from historical stratification, the entities falling within the scope of APE represent both companies in various sectors (services and finance, energy, transport, industry) and multiple statutes – public limited companies in the majority of cases, but also public institutions of an industrial and commercial nature (établissements publics à caractère industriel et commercial – EPIC).
Company Direct state ownership Indirect state ownership Industry Products/Services/Activity Électricité de France (EDF) 100% energy electricity Engie (formerly GDF-Suez) 23.64% energy electricity, natural gas Constellium 10% via Bpifrance manufacturing, mettalurgy aluminium production Vallourec 7.10% via Bpifrance manufacturing, mettalurgy automotive parts, stainless steel Stellantis 6.20% via Bpifrance manufacturing automobiles, commercial vehicles STMicroelectronics 27.60% via Bpifrance manufacturing electronics, semiconductors French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) 100% defence, manufacturing design and manufacturing of nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons, electronics Réseau de Transport d'Électricité (RTE) 100% via CTE energy electricity transmission Areva 100% energy nuclear reactor (Olkiluoto 3) Framatome 75.50% via EDF energy nuclear reactors TechnicAtome 70.60% (20.30% via CEA) 29.30% (20.30% via Naval Group; 9.00% via EDF) energy nuclear propulsion, research reactor Orano 79.90% mining, energy nuclear fuel Eramet 27.13% via FSI-Equation mining, metallurgy manganese, nickel, steel alloys Thales Group 25.70% electronics advanced electrical systems Renault 15.01% automotive automobiles, commercial vehicles Airbus 10.90% via SOGEPA aerospace, defence civil and military aircraft, space systems Safran 11.20% aerospace, defence aircraft and rocket engines, missiles, electronics, space systems Chantiers de l'Atlantique 84.30% 11.70% via Naval Group shipbuilding cruise ships, ocean liners, tankers, cargo ships, warships Office français d'exportation d'armement (ODAS) 100% defence advanced weapons systems Naval Group 62.25% defence warships, submarines Eurenco 100% defence chemicals, munitions, explosives KNDS 50% defence artillery, munitions, military vehicles, tanks, defence electronics Défense Conseil International (DCI) 49.90% defence defense advisory, training and operational assistance France Télévisions 100% communication television, radio and online broadcasting France Médias Monde 100% communication television, radio and online broadcasting Radio France 100% communication radio broadcasting ARTE France 40% (15% via INA) 60% (45% via France Télévisions; 15% via Radio France) communication television broadcasting, film Orange 13.40% 9.60% via Bpifrance communication landline and mobile network operations, television service, internet Alcatel Submarine Networks 80% communication submarine cables La Poste 34% 66% via Caisse des dépôts communication, transport, finance mail and parcel services, mobile network operation, banking, insurance Banque publique d'investissement (Bpifrance) 49.18% via EPIC Bpifrance 49.18% via Caisse des dépôts finance SME and startup financing, equity investment, export credit Dexia 46.81% finance banking, insurance Société de prise de participation de l'Etat (SPPE) 100% finance investing in bank securities Monnaie de Paris 100% finance coins, medals Imprimerie nationale 100% printing identification cards, licenses, passports Rungis International Market 33.34% 18.80% (13.20% via the City of Paris; 5.60% via the Val-de-Marne department) food wholesale food Laboratoire français du fractionnement et des biotechnologies (LFB) 100% health blood plasma, medicines Société pour le logement intermédiaire (SLI) 100% real estate intermediate rental housing Air France-KLM 28.60% transport airline services Aéroports de Paris (ADP) 50.60% transport airport operations Airports of Marseille-Provence, Bordeaux–Mérignac, Montpellier-Méditerranée, Strasbourg-Entzheim, Martinique, Guadelope and Réunion 100% transport airport operations SNCF 100% transport inter-city and regional railway services RATP 100% transport metro, bus, tram and regional railway service in Île-de-France Port complex of Le Havre-Rouen-Paris (HAROPA Port) 100% transport port operations Ports of Marseille-Fos, Dunkirk, Nantes-Saint-Nazaire, La Pallice, Bordeaux, Martinique, Guadelope and Réunion 100% transport port operations Caisse nationale des autoroutes (CNA) 100% transport, finance motorway construction financing Autoroutes et tunnel du Mont-Blanc (ATMB) 67.30% via FDPITMA transport motorway tunnel operation Société française du tunnel routier du Fréjus (SFTRF) 99.90% via FDPITMA transport motorway tunnel operation Française des Jeux (FDJ) 20.46% gaming lottery, sports betting Coentreprise de Transport d'Électricité (CTE) 59.91% (50.01% via EDF; 29.90% via Caisse des dépôts) holding company Société FSI-Equation 100% holding company Societé de Gestion de Participations Aéronautiques (SOGEPA) 100% holding company Fonds pour le Développement d'une Politique Intermodale des Transports dans le Massif Alpin (FDPITMA) 100% holding company
See also Bpifrance (company) Caisse des dépôts et consignations Établissement public à caractère industriel et commercial Government-owned corporation
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