Alain Gomez, president of Thomson SA, said in a recent article in Les Echos that about $2,000m in new capital is an indispensable prerequisite to the company being privatised. Gomez told a Senate finance committee hearing that Thomson is under-financed, On top of which weigh $4,162m in debts linked essentially to the external growth operations of Thomson Multimedia. Thomson Multimedia has debt of about $2,500m. He said further that it was unlikely that the defence division, Thomson-CSF SA, could take private investment without a restructuring of the French defence industry. Two privatisation schemes have been envisioned for Thomson: either a merger of Thomson SA and CSF or a spinoff of CSF, Thomson SA and Thomson Multimedia. Despite the consolidation of American defence electronics companies and a slowdown in the consumer electronics market, Gomez said that no job cuts were expected at the group, which should report an operating profit of about $625m.
