Alcatel NV, 63% owned by Compagnie Generale d’Electricite SA, 37% by ITT Corp, a situation expected to be resolved in CGE’s favour shortly, has reported net profits for 1989 up 32.6% at $391.8m on turnover up 15.2% at $14,200m. The company reckons that it grew 50% faster than the market as a whole and now has 20% of the European telephone equipment market, 12% on the world market, putting it number two to AT&T Co. In switching systems it claims to be number one, with 33% of the world market and 33% of the European – but that is because it has two major exchanges – System 12 and E10, and will somehow have to design a single successor if development costs are not to cripple it. In Eastern Europe, it now has joint ventures with VEB Kombinat Nachrichtenelektronik in West Germany, with Videoton in Hungary and with various local partners in Jugoslavia. In Poland, the company’s Alcatel Standard Electrica SA has now formally signed the contract to supply 140,000 trunk lines of System 12 exchanges, and it is about to sign a $36m contract in for digital switching and transmission equipment with Sichuan province, People’s Republic of China.
