FLNKS's main component
p. 40 · Read in the full issue
agrees on 50/50 French nickel stock sharing
Pro-Independence FLNKS (Kanak Socialist National Liberation Front)’s main component, the Union Caledonienne (UC) mid- May agreed on a 50/50 sharing of stock to be transferred from French nickel giant Eramet and its local subsidiary SLN (Societe Le Nickel), daily newspaper Les Nouvelles
Caledoniennes reported.
As part of the implementation of the Noumea accord (signed in 1998 between FLNKS leader Roch Wamytan, anti independence RPCR -Rally for New
Caledonian within the French Republic head Jacques Lafleur and French prime minister Lionel Jospin), the French government has agreed to fund the transfer of a 20-billion French Francs (around four billion US dollars) worth of shares in Eramet (eight per cent) and 30 per cent of SLN’s shares to New Caledonia’s Northern, Southern and Loyalty islands provinces.
But Jospin’s special envoy, former High Commissioner Alain Christnacht, who was in the French territory early May, failed to get the provinces to agree on the proposed
terms, half of the shares for the Southern Province and the other half for the Northern and Islands regions.
All provinces had indicated they needed more time to consider the offer, which is however limited in time and is to expire this month. DC, which Wamytan also heads, is the first party to express willingness on the issue.
But Wamytan demands that in return for its agreement on the 50/50 deal, the Northern Province should be given the chair of the Board of Directors of a company to be formed as part of the transfer.
Dividends would also be distributed with no connection to the percentage of shares held, but rather on a 25/75 basis: 25 per cent for the Southern province and 75 per cent for the other two provinces, Wamytan told a press conference. ■