The French government’s public sale of its...

The French government’s public sale of its stock in the defense and electronics group Matra S. A. was about five times oversubscribed, with two times more stockholders than the initial goal, the Finance Ministry said. According to a ministry statement, individuals requested about 18.2 million shares, well over the 3.7 million available under the offering. The public offering left Matra with about 300,000 individual shareholders.