FRENCH STATE SELL-OFFS RAISE 52 BILLION FRANCS
  The French government's privatisation
  program, which began late last year, has earned the French
  State about 52 billion francs to date, the Finance Ministry
  said.
      Sources close to Finance Minister Edouard Balladur said the
  revenues raised from the privatisation program would be used in
  priority to pay off public debt, which stood at 398.2 billion
  at the end of 1986.
      The Ministry said in a communique that the returns included
  banking group Societe Generale &lt;SGEN.PA>, which began its
  two-week public flotation last Monday.
      The government has carried out eight flotations, as well as
  the private sale of telephone group &lt;Cie Generale de
  Constructions Telephoniques> (CGCT) since its denationalisation
  scheme began last December with the sell-off of glass makers
  Saint-Gobain &lt;SGEP.PA>, it added.
      The government has pledged to privatise 66 state-owned
  industrial, banking and insurance companies by 1991.
      Other companies to be sold to the private sector in the
  near future are television network TF-1 later this month and
  banking group Cie Financiere de Suez &lt;FSPP.PA> in the autumn.
      The ministry said TF-1's forthcoming sell-off meant that a
  third of the government's programme would have been completed
  in less than nine months.
      Balladur on Sunday rejected press and opposition charges
  that the share prices for privatised companies had been pitched
  too low.
      He said that the average premium of shares trading on the
  Bourse was between 15 and 30 pct over their offer price. This
  compared with premiums of between 60 and 80 pct on similar
  share flotations in Britain.
  

