Alcatel CEO Sees Nexans Cable Unit IPO Before Summer (Update1)
By Daniel Tilles
Paris, April 5 (Bloomberg) -- Alcatel SA expects to sell shares in its cable unit, Nexans, before summer, the company's chief executive said. Last year, analysts valued the business at about 1 billion euros ($900 million).
``In all likelihood it should be before summer,'' Alcatel Chief Executive Serge Tchuruk told journalists.
The initial share sale of Nexans, which accounted for 15 percent of Alcatel's revenue in 2000, was delayed in October while the company debated whether to sell the unit to industrial investors or sell shares to the public.
``An IPO will free up management to focus on the problem child in its core telecoms business--mobile phones,'' said Eric Burkel, an analyst with Global Equities, who has a ``buy'' rating on Alcatel shares. ``We have been waiting a long time for this.''
The Paris-based company, Europe's fourth-biggest phone equipment maker, said last month that it would post a loss at its mobile phone unit because of lower sales this year.
Following the Nexans sale, Alcatel will derive all revenue from its telecommunications businesses. That's compared with 35 percent in 1995, the year Tchuruk took the helm.
Sales at Nexans rose 17 percent to 1.13 billion euros and operating profit rose 66 percent to 40 million, Alcatel said in October. It will be the world's third-largest cable company after Pirelli SpA of Italy and Sumitomo Electric Industries Ltd. of Japan after the sale.
Alcatel shares rose as much as 1.48 euros, or 4.6 percent, to 33.38 and were recently at 33.29 euros. |
