Unease as Chinese firms win bid for big French airport stake

PARIS, Dec 6 (AFP): The planned sale to a Chinese consortium of a 49.99 per cent government stake in a major French airport where Airbus tests and assembles planes has sparked a wave of unease.
Paris announced Thursday that it had decided to sell the 308-million-euro ($381-million) stake in the company that manages Toulouse airport to the Symbiose consortium that is made up of Chinese state-owned group Shandong Hi-Speed Group and Hong Kong-based investment firm Friedmann Pacific Asset Management.
In an interview with local daily La Depeche du Midi, Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron insisted that the airport was not being privatised, pointing out that the state -- which retains a 10.01 per cent stake -- along with local authorities would still be majority owners.
But officials on both sides of the political spectrum expressed their reservations on the planned sale, pointing out that French players had also been in the running to snap up the stake.
"Airports must remain public," tweeted Marie-Noelle Lienemann, a Socialist senator.