France Planning on Record IPO for Utility

The French government is expected to price France Telecom at the high end of the range today, investors and analysts said, letting its main telephone operator raise more than $6 billion in the country’s biggest initial public offering. France is selling up to one-fifth of France Telecom--Europe’s second-biggest telephone company and the world’s fourth-largest--in a bid to reduce its debt and meet the requirements for the single European currency. The sale of France Telecom is intended to help the company better compete internationally by allowing it to raise capital on the markets and swap shares with key partners. The Finance Ministry has already said the shares will be priced from $29 to $32 a share, valuing the company’s 1 billion shares at up to $31.6 billion.