French vendor Alcatel-Lucent has announced plans to sell assets worth €1bn (US$1.3bn) by 2015 as part of its “Shift Plan” disclosed today.
The struggling company said the programme is aimed at repositioning Alcatel from a telecoms equipment…
French vendor Alcatel-Lucent has announced plans to sell assets worth €1bn (US$1.3bn) by 2015 as part of its “Shift Plan” disclosed today.
The struggling company said the programme is aimed at repositioning Alcatel from a telecoms equipment generalist to “an industrial specialist in IP networking and ultra-broadband access”.
Besides asset disposals – the nature of which were not disclosed – the vendor is targeting €1bn in fixed-cost savings as well as €2bn in debt re-profiling over the period 2013-2015 and future debt reduction of €2bn.
The re-profiling will be achieved “by actively capitalising on attractive international debt market opportunities,” according to a statement.
Recently, Alcatel issued €2bn credit facilities underwritten by Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs, and secured against the company’s patent portfolio.
In addition, the company “plans to seek a reduction of its debt by approximately €2bn including through further asset disposals and through access to the equity markets”.
Overall, Alcatel is eyeing a 15% increase of its core networking segment revenues to over €7bn in 2015, against €6.1bn in 2012. It is also aiming for a jump in operating margin from 2.4% in 2012 to 12.5% in 2015.
Alcatel-Lucent has been facing financial difficulties over the past few years, reporting a €1.37bn net loss in 2012.
The company, which was created by a merger in 2006, appointed industry veteran Michel Combes as its CEO in early April.
It was also announced recently that, effective as of 1 July, Philippe Guillemot will join the equipment maker as senior executive vice president, operations.
