LFI MP Aurélien Le Coq had his “15 minutes of fame” as Andy Warhol said when he declared to the National Assembly that a CAC 40 shareholder was a parasite “who prevents money from returning to the real economy”.
Doesn’t such a definition apply first of all to the State? As we learn from the latest activity report from the State Participation Agency (APE), the State received 2.469 billion euros (€ billion) in dividends in 2024. Money which, far from fueling the real economy, is paid into the general State budget and therefore contributes to waste.
The State is today still a shareholder in 86 companies, from Areva to Thalès, including Airbus, La Poste, Orange, Renault, Safran, etc. As of June 30, 2025, the value of its portfolio was estimated at €209.1 billion.
The APE boasts of having “refocused the State’s portfolio of participations by defining its intervention doctrine and its strategic priorities on three axes” the first of which is performance. The activity report specifies that, since 2017, the agency has sought “systematically to make the companies in its portfolio more efficient operationally and financially”.
What would it be if there had not been this refocusing on performance? Because, as everyone can calculate, the return on the State portfolio is only 1.18%, less than the Livret A (1.7%), and less than inflation (2%) in 2024. And above all, far from the 5 to 7% that a diversified investment in stocks yields over the long term.
If State participations bring in so little, it is perhaps because of the third axis of the EPA strategy which consists of ensuring “that companies are exemplary in social, environmental and governance criteria”. By transforming companies into CSR activists, the State diverts them from their mission (to produce the goods and services we need at the most competitive price) and weakens them.
It might be time for the State to gradually divest itself of its holdings. This would be a great service to businesses and their customers, but also to public finances.