Organisation and financing of the public sector

In France the public sector is particularly vast: the Government, local public entities, public institutions, public and para-public bodies, as well as mixed-economy companies and public companies. These various players must manage undiminished demand for renewed public intervention, in a context of deficit and public debt reduction.

Faced with this challenge, they must be innovative and flexible in their approach and their funding sources so as to maintain adequate room for manoeuver.

In this context we have developed solid experience in the area of helping public players and their partners carry out their investment and diversification projects, as well as all the changes in their organisation and governance: subsidiarisation of activities, outsourcing and sharing services, privatisation, restructuring, transformation and creation of new structures, institutional cooperation, etc.

You can also benefit from global support covering all issues related to carrying out and financing such operations:

• assistance with choosing the structure (public institution, mixed-economy company, single-operation mixed-economy company, local public company, public-interest group, economic-interest group, non-profit company, commercial company, etc.);
• determination of the structure’s governance and operating rules;
• risk audits and analyses;
• handling of the operation with regard to issues of “Maastrichtian” deconsolidation (so-called national accounting, according to Eurostat criteria);
• drafting the legislative and regulatory texts necessary to carry out the operation. 

Similarly, we assist with all financing operations in which one or more public operators are involved. The firm has developed a recognised expertise in instituting financing techniques as an alternative to public borrowing. In particular, we help public sector players, banks and financial investors issue bonds on the market (“EMTN” programmes), securitise public receivables and create investment funds.

These operations enjoy strong institutional support from some of the firm’s partners (former members of the Conseil d’Etat and the Conseil Constitutionnel) and our multidisciplinary approach (competition law and government subsidies, banking and finance law, public finance law, tax law, corporate law, social law, and criminal law, in particular).