As part of ITT Corp’s effort to give its European country operations a more national look in the late 1970s, it floated a minority of its Standard Elektrik Lorenz AG in Germany on the Frankfurt stock exchange: now Alcatel Alsthom SA wants to reverse the action, and is offering shareholders either an exchange into shares of the ultimate parent plus cash – two Alcatel Alsthom shares and the equivalent of $80.50 in cash, or $269.4 a share cash, in an offer that could cost Alcatel Alsthom a total of $312m if holders of all the 14% of traded shares decide to take the money.
