The new Iris telecommunications company formed in France by Compagnie Generale des Eaux SA and the Uniworld joint venture between Unisource BV and AT&T Corp was setting out its stall yesterday, and its ambition is to be the number two telecommunications group in France by the year 2000, eating into the France Telecom monopoly. It will initially concentrate on the business services where France already allows competition. At present, Generale has 50.01% and Unisource 49.99%, but when all the approvals for it are in, Uniworld, 60% Unisource, 40% AT&T, will take over the Unisource stake. Iris plans to invest a modest $150m or so setting up its network in the next few years and has already signed up two big customers, Renault SA and Bridgestone Firestone Inc. Iris is looking for $520m to $560m turnover by the turn of the millennium, which would be 10% of the telecommunications services market.
