Alcatel-Lucent chairman Tchuruk denies report will resign

Alcatel-Lucent chairman Tchuruk denies report will resign

Alcatel-Lucent chairman Serge Tchuruk has denied press reports he is on the verge of resigning and could be replaced by former finance minister Thierry Breton, a spokesman for the group said.

French weekly business magazine Expansion published the claims on its website yesterday, but Tchuruk denies 'any suggestion' his departure is imminent, the spokesman told Agence France-Presse.

Satirical weekly Le Canard Enchaine cited unnamed sources as saying Breton, who was chief executive of France Telecom before joining the goverment under President Jacques Chirac, wants to replace both Tchuruk and Alcatel-Lucent chief executive Patricia Russo.

Alcatel-Lucent's share price has slumped by 60 pct over the past year and by 17 pct in 2008 to date to a five-year low, hit by successive profit warnings related to the merger of the French and US groups.

Goldman Sachs yesterday downgraded the stock to 'sell' from 'neutral' and added it to its 'Conviction Sell List', saying Alcatel-Lucent's outlook remains greatly challenged in wireless and it can expect stalled growth in 2008 in wireline.

Alcatel is scheduled to release fourth-quarter financial results on Feb 8.

Alcatel-Lucent chief executive Patricia Russo was widely rumoured to be under threat ahead of the release of third quarter results in October but she said she has been given no ultimatum.

Alcatel-Lucent had blamed soft spending among US mobile operators for weak sales since the merger and in October said it was 'seeing a big slowdown in spending in the wireline part of the market, particularly around North America'.