France in $19 billion strategic fund stake transfer

PARIS (Reuters) - France on Monday unveiled a list of state-owned stakes in companies, worth 14 billion euros ($19 billion), that will be transferred to the government's strategic investment fund.

The move could make it easier for the government to play a more active role in managing the stakes, including selling off some of them.

It will allow the state to use money from dividends or the sale of stakes to invest in other companies.

The fund was announced by President Nicolas Sarkozy last year to protect key domestic industries and help smaller companies struggling from the financial crisis to raise funds.

Sarkozy, a long-standing advocate of government intervention to support domestic industry where necessary, said the fund would allow the state to protect companies weakened by the financial crsis from foreign "predators."

The economy ministry said in a statement an 8.0 percent holding of Aeroports de Paris and a 13.5 percent France Telecom

stake that are currently held by the state would be transferred to the fund.

The government will also transfer 20 stakes in listed companies held by state bank Caisse des Depots.

These are: Accor (7.6 percent), L'Air Liquide (0.5 percent), Alcatel-Lucent (0.8 percent), Altran Technologies (1.9 percent), Assystem (14.5 percent), Danone (1.8 percent), Eiffage (20.0 percent) Eutelsat Communications (25.7 percent), Imerys (1.8 percent), Lagardere SCA (1.6 percent), Nexity (5.4 percent), Schneider Electric (2.3 percent), Seche Environnement (20.0 percent), Sodexo (1.3 percent), Technip (2.6 percent), Ubisoft Entertainment (3.9 percent), Valeo (2.9 percent), Vallourec (0.9 percent), Vivendi (2.1 percent), Zodiac Aerospace (4.9 percent).

The government also transferred several stakes in non-listed companies.

The Caisse des Depots has already given 6 billion euros in cash to the fund to allow it to buy stakes in companies. A billion of that has already been used for investments.

The 14 billion euros worth of stakes will bring the fund's value to a total of 20 billion euros.

The Caisse des Depots holds 51 percent of the fund and the state holds 49 percent.

(Reporting by Anna Willard and James Regan; editing by Simon Jessop)