A deal has almost been finalised for TRT SA, a Philips Electronics NV subsidiary, to take a 75% stake in Experdata SA, which specialises in local area network products. According to a spokesman at TRT, the agreement is likely to be made official any day now. Experdata, which has five offices in France, reported net profits equivalent to $1m, on turnover of $19.5m for the year ending June 1992. It was set up in 1981 by Jean Gaudfernau, and at the moment is 60%-owned by its founders. State monopoly France Telecom owns another 19% of shares through its subsidiary Innovacom, Innolion of Credit Lyonnais 7.7%, Epicea 2.7%, UCEF 2.4% and Sofina 1.5% after a capital increase carried out about a year ago. If the deal does go through, most of these shareholders will disappear from the register with the exception of France Telecom and the founders. TRT’s interest in Experdata lies in its desire to get into the enterprise-wide telecommunications market. In 1991, TRT turned in net profits equivalent to $4.8m, with sales of $440m, divided equally between the private sector, France Telecom and exports. The new partners will work together in such areas as multimedia concentrators, multiprotocol bridges and routers, concentrators for Switched Multi-Megabit Data Services lines, multiprotocol and X25 switches, multiplexers and modems.
