From ft.com: ALCATEL: Strong figures lift shares
By David Owen in Paris
ft.com
Shares in Alcatel climbed sharply on Thursday after
the French telecommunicationsequipment group announced a strong increase in 1999 operating
income.
Income from operations increased by 28 per
cent in all to E1.28bn ($1.24bn) on revenues
ahead more than 8 per cent to E23bn.
Net income weighed in at E644m, or E3.44 a
share, against E2.34bn in 1998 - a figure
particularly affected by one-off items. The latest
figures included other revenue of E925m,
versus E2.21bn in the year-earlier period.
This 1999 item, in turn, included a one-time
pre-tax gain of E386m on the sale of a stake in
Framatome, the French nuclear construction
and connectors company.
The shares in Paris closed ahead more than 12
per cent at E247.40.
Alcatel, whose name has once again been
linked in recent days with a possible takeover of
Newbridge Networks, the Canadian telecoms
equipment manufacturer, also said it wasmaintaining its operating margin target of 6.5
per cent for 2000. This implied "around a 30
per cent growth in operating income".
One well-placed industry observer said
Newbridge's core ATM switching technology
was "finally finding its day in the sun" as more
residential, as opposed to corporate,
customers sought to access the internet via
ADSL technology.
"Anyone who is a big telecoms player - except
Nortel, Cisco and Lucent - would have to be
interested in Newbridge," the observer said.
Serge Tchuruk, chairman, said that 1999 sales
of the company, which has devoted much
energy in recent quarters to its attempt to
reposition itself as a force in the fast-growing
internet market, were driven by strong advances
in optical and data networking activities.
He said the company anticipated "revenue
growth in the mid-teens for our four telecoms
segments in 2000". Softness in energy cables
markets might, however, reduce overall growth
to "the lower teens".
The board is to submit for shareholder approval
distribution of a net dividend of E2.20 a share
and a five-for-one stock split.
The divisional breakdown was as follows:
networking - operating income of E389m on
sales of E7.13bn; internet and optics - income
of E402m on sales of E5.6bn; enterprise and
consumer - income of E39m on sales of
E3.74bn; telecom components - income of
E330m on sales of E3.36bn; and energy cables
- income of E110m on sales of E3.64bn. |
