ERAMET PARIS (Reuters) - Mining group Eramet (>> ERAMET), which is struggling with heavy losses at its nickel division in New Caledonia, is not considering a capital increase, its finance director was quoted as saying in daily newspaper L'Opinion.
"There is no capital increase plan being studied," Thomas Devedjian said in an article published by L'Opinion on Tuesday.
The comment followed a report in newsletter Lettre de l'Expansion on Monday that France's state investment agency APE held talks with Eramet's largest shareholder, the Duval family, last week and that an overall capital increase was a possibility.
A spokesman for the Duval family confirmed that they were in talks with the APE but declined to comment further.
Eramet did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Duval family holds a 37.1 percent stake in Eramet and France's Bpifrance public investment bank owns 25.7 percent, according to Thomson Reuters data.
Reporting a full-year net loss of 714 million euros (572 million pounds) in February, Eramet had said it would present a plan for its New Caledonian nickel unit SLN in April.
France, which controls the Pacific territory of New Caledonia, has said it would support the nickel sector there, which also includes mining operations run by Glencore (>> Glencore PLC) and Vale (>> Vale SA).
Shares in Eramet, which like other nickel producers have been hit by a drop in nickel prices to 12-year price lows due to global oversupply, were down 3.3 percent by 1203 GMT. They have now fallen 26 percent this year, on top of a 61 percent decline in 2015.
(Reporting by Raphael Bloch, Julien Ponthus and Gus Trompiz; Editing by Susan Fenton)
