But some analysts estimate that the two could fetch as little as euro1 billion.
Mrs Guigou's calculation that their demands would add euro1.2 billion to France's annual social-security bill leaves them unmoved.
This year the 250km extension of the line to Marseilles will put up his access charges to euro1.7 billion.
Each year the government puts in new equity to cover the loss: last year the figure was euro1.9 billion.
So far, it has a mere euro1.6 billion under management for third parties.
Commerzbank, the fourth biggest, pledged recently to lend euro1.8 billion to Mittelstand companies.
This seems plausible, given that SocGen, after full access to Paribas's books and thorough study, hoped to save euro1 billion.
It points out that around euro1.7 billion of prepayments have been spent in making advance payments to its own suppliers.
By 2005 KarstadtQuelle, already the market leader, expects to sell euro1.2 billion-worth of equipment and clothing, up from euro650m last year.
But the true figure is in fact much higher, because there is, in addition, a subsidy from the government of euro1.6 billion.
Dresdner is not Germany's best bank and earned Euro1.7 billion last year.
In March Vivendi raised a new euro3 billion medium-term facility, and in April it sold part of its publishing business to raise a further euro1 billion.
Well deserved, thought their patients, for a profession where the average annual salary, after expenses, is a moderate euro51, 000 but the award adds another euro1.2 billion to the social-security bill.
Deutsche raised about euro1 billion in the first quarter, mainly from shares in Allianz and Munich Re, after the capital-gains tax on such sales was abolished at the start of the year.
But one thing is sure: as shopkeepers in January converted to the euro at, in theory, 1, 936 lire to euro1 prices in the new currency were not just quietly rounded up (that was illegal) but leapt.
The share dealings indicate an urgent need to raise cash, an observation supported by the fact that, just before the end of last year, Vivendi abruptly sold 9% of its stake in Vivendi Environnement, bringing in euro1.2 billion.
These substantial Mittelstand companies include such famous names as Miele (white goods), Behr (air conditioners), Stihl (chainsaws) and Trumpf (laser-cutters), which each have a turnover of between euro1 billion and euro2 billion and employ between 5, 000 and 15, 000 people.
World Online's bungled flotation, and the subsequent resignation of Nina Brink, its founder and chairman, were grubby events, but they left the company with euro1.6 billion of cash in the bank, money that Tiscali can now use to finance its ambitious plans.
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