French govt to ‘fight’ TotalEnergies New York listing [Video]

France will “fight” to keep oil and gas giant TotalEnergies from shifting its main stock market listing to New York, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said Thursday.

“I’m here to make sure that doesn’t happen,” Le Maire told news channel BFM.

“Is the overriding interest of the nation to keep Total’s headquarters in France and its main stock market listing in France? Yes, and so I will fight for that,” he added.

TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanne told Bloomberg last week he was thinking about moving the listing across the Atlantic, as North American institutional investors come close to making up a majority of shareholders.

He said Europe’s reticence at his strategy of continuing to invest in fossil fuels to finance a transition to …