Alcatel Alsthom SA has given ITT Corp permission to sell 2.1m Alcatel shares to a US investment fund, reducing its stake in the company to 4.9% – you’ve forgotten how ITT came to hold shares in Alcatel? About half of the telecommunications equipment subsidiary Alcatel NV is ITT’s old European telecommunications business, and while ITT wanted shot of it, Alcatel could not pay cash all at once so had to leave ITT with a continuing stake, which was swapped for Alcatel Alsthom shares in 1992; ITT signed a shareholder agreement with Alcatel in 1992, pledging to retain its shareholding until July 3 1997, but has now been approached by a big US investment fund, which wanted 2.1m Alcatel shares, and the French firm has given its assent to this.
