Total, French State Biz

[cd@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

JJ and those of u who are a bit in the dark or confused about TOTAL, the
French touch, when it comes to business, please
read the following, slowly so you will see, when you talk TOTAl, you are
virtually talking about the French state control, power and money, and
real heavy state power. TOTAL is there for long term, like the French
were there in Zaire with Mobutu. Remember, the french prime minister,
alain juppe, was foreign minister in the Mitterand-government, replacing
Roland Dumas as a concession to the right, and that was in 1994-95
bringing you the wonderful Rwanda genocide, backing the hutus against
the tutsi population. Zaire is that Phase II. And the French are screwed
there, and here, blame it all on the americans! Typically French. 

Dawn Star, paris

Front page news in France and the UK: ex-TOTAL boss, Serge Tchuruk

Former TOTAL czar, Serge Tchuruk, the man responsible for putting the
notorious Yadana " Death " Pipeline in place, before his departure to
head Alcatel-Alsthom. Its about restructuring (partnership or breakup)
with its General Electric Company  UK venture, formed in 1989 with sales
of approx. £7.5 billion in 1996.  GEC and Alcatel have been engaged in
months of discussions with the French govt over possible takeover by
GEC-Alsthom of Framatone, the French state-controlled nuclear plant and
fuel manufacture. (Source FT 19/3/97)

The history unravels further once again revealing the interlocked mesh
of French state-controlled companies with the giant energy sector: CEA,
Cogema, Framatone, Alactel-Alsthom-TOTAL...

Last October,  Framatome annouced its eventual  merger with GEC Alsthom
to compete internationally, combining Framatome's nuclear sectors
through the creation of a company Framépargne  with some  5 % capital
from  Framatome. (Source CEA) Tchuruk said Alcatel was in separate talks
to merge with GEC (UK), with Framatome, the state controlled nuke power
plant builder,  in which it also has a stake.

In Cogema, the  CEA - Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique,  is a 100%. The
CEA is now celebrating its fifty years in the nuclear industry. (Source
CEA website)

CEA - Direction de la communication
31/33 rue de la Fédération - 75752 PARIS CEDEX 15
Tél. 33 (1) 40 56 10 00

Cogema , last August 31, increased its share in TOTAL SA capital from
4.7% to 5.6%. (Source TOTAL SA, Paris)
Last week, Cogema was the lead press story over excessive radioactive
leakage on the north french coast from one of its nuclear waste
reactors.

So you get an idea of whats going on  here. I believe it was 95 when
Tchuruk left TOTAl to shore up the French economic catastrophe of
Alcatel.  Now the IHT today reports that Tchuruk also said in his press
conference yesterday, that he seeks  a deal with Daimler-Benz Aerospace
AG of Germany as well as GEC (UK) 'if Alcatel won the bidding for
Thomson-CSF (recently in the press over the privitization fiasco with
Daewoo, complicated by the fact that Tchuruk is a favorite of Chirac,
while the Thomson deal is complicated by another French Defense boss,
Lagadere, closer to the socialist camp, and not really part of the
Chirac Old Boy style). On that end, Alcatel hs joined now with Dassault
Industries (maker of the Mirage and Raphael fighter jet) to compete
against the  Lagadere Groupe, to buy a 58 % stake in the
defense-electronics company from the french state. That deal, says
Tchuruk, will also involve the aircraft manufactuer (Airbus)
Aerospatiale.

Tchuruk aims for European cooperation, consolidation. 

Remember that although Tchuruk says Alcatel went profitable in 1996
(helped froma asset sales) the company, Europe's largest maker of
telecommunications equipment, posted a net profit of $473 million. That
followed one of the biggest losses in French corporate history, -over $5
billion in 1995, written off to reorganisation costs.

In Paris, Alcatel's shares closed yesterday up 54 points, 8.8%, at 667.

++++

Further news about the GAN, TOTAL  shareholder at  1.5 % Total capital,
down from 2.2% last year.  The FT yesterday ran a story " Bail-out of
Gan 'could cost Ffr30bn', described how the total cost to the French
taxpayer of bailing out GAN, the troubled state owned insurance group,
could be as much as $5.23 billion, said its former chaiman, Jean-Jacques
Bonnaud, who was sacked by Chirac late last year (" widely seen as
political revenge for his opposition to the nomination of a senior
adviser to Alain Juppe (the French Prime Minister). Poor property
lending could add another $2-4 billion to the government rescue plan
announced last month. 

+++++

And still, ANOTHER TOTAL shareholder, the French national bank Credit
Lyonnais, down from 3.1% to 1.8% capital share, sees its government
rescue plan could run up to $26 BILLION - far more than the $10 billion
platform approved by the eurotechnocrats in Brussels at the European
Parliament.