typhoon:
If a company is 100% owned by the government it is not owned by the private sector.
Going public means privatization or open for private individual ownership and individuals belonging to the general public population.
Actually any company that doesn't freely trade stock on a listed stock exchange is considered "private" where I come from. When shares are open for sale to any investor on the open market then it is "public".
A public company or publicly traded company is a company that has permission to offer its registered securities (stock, bonds, etc.) for sale to the general public, typically through a stock exchange, or occasionally a company whose stock is traded over the counter (OTC) via market makers who use non-exchange quotation services.
Read the paper today and can see where the confusion is coming from. The paper talks about selling government owned companies to the private sector, not going public with any company.
TP