比利时政府内部有人推动出售所持法国巴黎银行5.7%股份，但短期内不会执行且尚无决定

Belgium is ramping up efforts to divest from stakes it amassed in banks during the global financial crisis, with some in the government pushing to prioritize the sale of its 5.7% stake in BNP Paribas SA.

The sale is not expected to take place in the immediate future and is not seen as tied to ongoing, contentious budget talks, according to people familiar with discussions. But there is a push within Prime Minister Bart de Wever’s five-party government to sell the holding following the completion of other divestments.

Belgium’s stake is worth about €5.4 billion ($6.1 billion) at BNP’s current market valuation of about €95 billion.

The government is on track to sell a 20% stake in Belfius Bank SA by the end of the year and is currently in a binding offer phase. There have also been discussions over future options for insurer Ethias SA including a spinoff of IT unit Keyes and a tie-up with Belfius.

Any sale of the stake would likely come after the country’s ongoing divestment processes, according to a person familiar with the discussions who requested anonymity to speak freely.

Spokespersons for ministers of the five parties in the Belgian government and BNP Paribas declined to comment.

Belgium became BNP Paribas’ largest shareholder in a 2008 deal that saw the French bank take control of Fortis, then Belgium’s largest financial services firm, following a government rescue.

Finance minister Jan Jambon has previously suggested an openness to selling state-owned assets seen as “non-strategic.”

“In my view, owning a bank is not a core task of government,” Jambon said in June during a discussion of the Belfius stake sale in a parliamentary committee hearing. A spokesperson for Jambon declined to comment on whether he sees the BNP stake as strategic.

Share prices across the European banking sector have risen strongly over the past few years, prompting efforts by many other governments in the region to sell stakes in lenders they have held for almost two decades. Examples include Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA in Italy, Commerzbank in Germany and ABN Amro in the Netherlands.

Belgium has a five-party coalition government that clashes on a number of topics, so reaching an agreement on selling the stake could prove challenging. The coalition is currently locked in discussions on its next budget as it tries to find about €10 billion ($11.2 billion) in savings by 2029.

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The government previously considered selling the BNP stake in 2025 to finance a defense fund, though ultimately it chose to sell 20% of Belfius instead.

SFPIM held 5.7% of BNP’s voting rights as of June 30 and was its second largest shareholder, after Blackrock, according to Bloomberg data.

Belgium had the highest budget deficit in the euro area last year, at 5.2% of gross domestic product. The country’s central bank expects that to widen to 5.7% in 2028.