Alcatel-Lucent Rises as FT Reports Permira to Buy Call Centers
October 13, 2011, 6:45 AM EDT
By Katie Linsell and Jacqueline Simmons
Oct. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Alcatel-Lucent rose the most in more than eight months in Paris trading after the Financial Times reported that the telecommunications-equipment manufacturer agreed to sell its corporate call-center business.
Alcatel-Lucent jumped as much as 11 percent to 2.31 euros, the biggest intraday gain since Feb. 10, and was up 8.5 percent as of 12:09 p.m. That propelled the stock to a 3.1 percent increase this year, valuing the Paris-based company at 5.23 billion euros ($7.18 billion).
The French manufacturer reached an agreement to sell the call-center division to London-based private-equity firm Permira Advisers LLP for as much as $1.5 billion, the Financial Times reported today, without saying where it got the information.
Talks between Alcatel and Permira are under way and no agreement has been reached, a person with knowledge of the negotiations said, declining to be identified because the process is private. The companies may fail to reach a deal, the person said.
Simon Poulter, a spokesman for Alcatel-Lucent, and Noemie de Andia, a Permira spokeswoman, declined to comment.
--With assistance from Matthew Campbell and Anne-Sylvaine Chassany in Paris. Editors: Tom Lavell, Simon Thiel |
