Agence des participations de l'État (, APE, lit. 'State Participations Agency'), created in 2004 under the government of Jean-Pierre Raffarin, is the French agency responsible for managing the State's shareholdings in companies of strategic importance.[1] As of 2022, APE has €732.514 billion worth of assets under management, which includes investments in companies involved in energy, industry, defence, transport, communication and finance, among others.[2]
History
The State participation agency is a Service à compétence nationale (service with national competence) created in September 2004.[3] The creation of the Agency responded to the need to clarify the role of a shareholder of the State and the promotion of its patrimonial interests alongside the regulatory functions, tax collection, sectoral supervision, buyer that the State exercises.
This first step provided the State with a structure embodying and exclusively exercising its role as a shareholder. The second step was to endow the APE with greater autonomy. The appointment of a State Equity Commissioner, reporting directly to the French Ministry of the Economy and Finance, completed the process. Since May 2017, the APE has 88 companies