If the government approves a sale of fresh shares, their holdings are threatened with dilution.

They said that Gemina also agreed to purchase $37.5 million of fresh shares in Tessile, increasing its capital base.

HOPES that there will be more interest rate cuts to come sparked off a fresh shares boom yesterday.

Edison, which educates about 75,000 students in 22 states, has relied on the sale of fresh shares to finance its rapid expansion since it began managing schools.

In a separate transaction, two holding companies controlled by Mr. de Benedetti, through which he controls Olivetti, said they planned to raise the equivalent of $394 million through fresh shares.

The recent decline in Edison's share price from more than $20 a share in January to $2.66 at the close of the stock market yesterday makes the sale of fresh shares unlikely.

Yet Standard & Poor's, in a note, cautioned that it expected state support to "materialize rapidly" through the sale of fresh shares; any delay, it said, would "put the ratings under pressure."

Mr. Bon's position became endangered in recent weeks as the government cast about in search of ways to shore up France Télécom, including a possible sale of fresh shares or convertible bonds.

In 1979, he signed a consent decree with the Securities and Exchange Commission in a civil proceeding relating to his trading in the stock of an American computer manufacturer that was about to issue fresh shares.

Seeking to develop fresh lines of business and to stanch hemorrhaging in its personal computer business, Olivetti S.p.A., Italy's unprofitable electronics giant, announced plans to raise $1.5 billion through an offer of fresh shares to investors.

If it agrees at some later date to the sale of fresh shares, France Télécom could also consider selling a stake in its Orange wireless unit, in which it holds an 85 percent stake, or in Equant, a successful provider of telecommunications services to corporate customers.