Space Units to Thales
>> Thales Will Buy Alcatel-Lucent Units in Two Phases
Pierre Tran, Paris
DefenseNews
defensenews.com
Alcatel-Lucent and Thales have signed a final agreement on the sale of Alcatel-Lucent’s transport, security and space business to Thales and future cooperation between the two companies, the companies said in a joint statement.
The final agreement follows Finmeccanica’s approval for the sale of Alcatel-Lucent’s stake in the Alcatel Alenia Space (AAS) and Telespazio joint ventures to Thales.
The deal will be completed in two phases, according to the Dec. 4 statement: In the first, Thales will hold a Jan. 5 shareholders meeting to approve the acquisition of the transport and security assets. In a second phase, Thales will provide details to the European Commission on actions to be taken to guarantee competition in the space sector, with a closing no later than April 2007.
Denis Ranque, Thales chief executive, told La Tribune newspaper in a Dec. 6 interview the company would “ring fence” the traveling waves business to address competition concerns in the space market.
Serge Tchuruk, chairman of the newly merged Alcatel-Lucent telecommunications equipment company, had said Dec. 1 he hoped for a swift and successful conclusion to the European Commission’s in-depth competition inquiry into the sale of Alcatel’s space business to Thales. The commission announced its probe Nov. 28, citing Thales’ dominant position in traveling wave tubes, a key component in telecommunications satellites.
Thales will issue 25 million new shares to Alcatel-Lucent and pay 40 million euros ($53 million) in cash for the transport and security activities.
For the space business, Thales will pay 670 million euros in cash, and the value of Alcatel-Lucent’s 67 percent stake in AAS will be re-assessed at the beginning of 2009.
Alcatel-Lucent’s stake in Thales will rise to 20.95 percent from 9.46 percent, while the government’s holding in Thales will fall to 27.29 percent from 31.26 percent.
Thales will acquire 1.9 billion euros of sales and 11,000 employees under the deal.
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