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France Telecom to buy Alcatel-Lucent cable ships

France Telecom-Orange is preparing to acquire Alcatel-Lucent's cable assets, people familiar with the matter told Les Echos. The 23 percent state-owned operator's France Telecom Marine subsidiary would secure at least part of the strategic undersea infrastructure to have control over cables entering France. The cable-laying ship division could purchase Alacatel's ships. The transaction would raise between EUR 100 million and EUR 150 million, not enough to solve financial issues for Alcatel-Lucent, which is burning EUR 700 million of cash a year. France's sovereign wealth fund may buy a stake in the Alcatel-Lucent cable manufacturing subsidiary. When Alcatel-Lucent announced a EUR 1.6 billion credit line from Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse, it said it would be used to raise EUR 1 billion to EUR 1.5 billion from non-core asset sales. The French state owns 3.6 percent of Alcatel-Lucent.