Norway opposition eyes $12 bln privatisation push
OSLO, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Norway's leading right-wing opposition party's planned privatisation drive, if it wins next month's general election, would raise some 73.6 billion crowns ($11.95 billion), daily Dagens Naeringsliv said on Thursday.
Calculations by the financial daily showed more than half of the sum would be raised by reducing the state stake in telecom Telenor (TEL.OL) to 34 percent from 54 percent, and selling a third of fully state-owned utility Statkraft [STATK.UL].
The right-wing, economically liberal Progress Party is now second in popularity behind the co-ruling Labour party.
Opinion polls ahead of the Sept. 14 vote show the ruling centre-left losing its parliamentary majority. But it would be hard for Progress to form a government because pivotal centre parties have so far refused to cooperate. [ID:nLH494522]
"We want to use the money on real investments at home -- meaning more Norwegian roads, rail connections and airports," deputy party chief Per Arne Olsen told the daily.
Progress' plans envisage cutting state stakes to 34 percent in fertiliser maker Yara (YAR.OL) (now 36.2 percent state owned), defence contractor Kongsberg Gruppen (KOG.OL) (50 pct) and aluminium producer Norsk Hydro (NHY.OL) (43.8 pct).
The state would sell its 14.3 percent stake in airline SAS (SAS.ST) and 43.5 percent stake in fish farmer Cermaq (CEQ.OL).
Norway's biggest company, 67-percent state-owned oil and gas producer StatoilHydro (STL.OL), is not on the Progress Party's privatisation list.
($1=6.161 Norwegian Crown) (Reporting by Wojciech Moskwa and Joachim Dagenborg, editing by Mike Peacock)
