PARIS (Reuters) - French utility Engie's (>> Engie) board has recommended four candidates to chair it, including Airbus COO Fabrice Bregier and Solvay Chief Executive Jean-Pierre Clamadieu, television channel BFM Business reported on Saturday.

Engie, in which the French state owns a 24.1 percent stake, has decided to keep the roles of chief executive and board chairman separate, the group said in a statement on Saturday.

French media have reported that Chief Executive Isabelle Kocher had made a bid to combine both roles after current chairman Gerard Mestrallet retires in May.

BFM Business said Kocher had failed to convince the government to merge the positions and that the board had reviewed four names to succeed Mestrallet this week.

The other two candidates are Frederic Lemoine, a former executive at investment firm Wendel (>> Wendel), and Yann Delabriere, a Zodiac (>> Zodiac Aerospace) executive, BFM Business said.

A spokesman for Engie declined to comment.

(Reporting by Michel Rose; editing by Alexander Smith)

Stocks treated in this article : Airbus SE, Wendel, Zodiac Aerospace, Engie, Solvay