- France: the French Minister for the Economy has selected five candidates for the takeover of BANQUE HERVET, currently being privatized. In line, remain: BNP PARIBAS, CCF-HSBC, CREDIT DU NORD allied to DEXIA and GROUPAMA, the only insurance company on the list. The banks net assets are estimated at FF 1.4 bn with a workforce of 1,400 and 85 branches. See EI of 6 January. - Greece: Greece has selected proposals on the part of six investors or consortia for the acquisition of a stake in the national airline company OA - OLYMPIC AIRWAYS, says CSFB - CREDIT SUISSE FIRST BOSTON, responsible for the file. The interested parties have not been named but CSFB has confirmed the presence of CYPRUS AIRWAYS. According to sources close to the file, the other five candidates are the American CHRYSLER AVIATION, Japan's SANWA INTERNATIONAL, the Greek shipping company RESTIS GROUP, the private Greek company AXON AIRLINES and the Australian venture-capital company INTEGRATED AIRLINE SOLUTION. See inter alia, EI of 6 January. - Portugal: SAIRGROUP has announced that it was pulling out of the privatization process of TAP AIR Portugal in which it had envisaged taking a 34% stake for 31 bn escudos, with the possibility of increasing this to 39% in the next four years. TAP's privatization is planned for between 2001 and 2004.