French government cuts EADS stake

(AP) PARIS - The French state has cut its stake in Airbus parent company EADS to 12 percent following the latest sale of shares, the second this month.

France’s finance ministry says in a statement Friday that it raised 707 million euros ($925 million) through the sale of 17.6 million EADS N.V. shares on Thursday. Together with the 12 million shares it sold April 16, the government has raised 1.19 billion euros selling EADS shares this month.

The share sales were announced in December as part of a deal to bring the French and German governments’ stakes to 12 percent each, while Spain would hold about 4 percent. Meanwhile, private sector investors Daimler AG of Germany and France’s Lagardere SCA have sold their own stakes.