Eiffel tower restaurants to change hands-report

PARIS, Nov 25 (Reuters) French restaurateur Alain Ducasse, with the backing of catering group Sodexho, is set to win the concession to run the restaurants at Paris's Eiffel tower, Le Parisien newspaper reported.

It quoted Jean-Bernard Bros, an adviser to Paris mayor Bertrand Delanoe, as saying the decision to award the concession to Ducasse and Sodexho unit L'Affiche, which provides catering to a number of French race courses, had been taken unanimously. Neither Sodexho nor the Ducasse group would comment on the report.

''We are waiting for the final decision of the city of Paris.

We won't make any comment until then,'' a spokeswoman for Ducasse said yesterday.

The Eiffel tower is visited by some 6.5 million people each year. Its restaurants are currently run by French catering group Elior, which is in the process of being delisted from the Paris stock exchange after a management buyout.

REUTERS BDP KP0857