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Source WSJ;
By DANA CIMILLUCA
Alcatel-Lucent SA ALU.FR -0.12%has secured a €1.6 billion ($2.1 billion) debt financing deal with banks that the money-losing telecom-equipment company hopes will buy enough time to return the company to profitability, according to people familiar with the matter.
Barring a last-minute snag, Alcatel-Lucent plans to announce the new financing package with Credit Suisse Group CSGN.VX +0.39%and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. GS +0.35%on Friday morning, these people said.
The funds will mostly be secured by the Paris-based company's U.S. assets, namely a portfolio of patents from the company's storied Bell Labs research arm and a valuable data-networking business. That means that should the company default, the new lenders would have first dibs on those assets, ahead of existing company creditors. Credit Suisse and Goldman demanded such protection to get the deal done, the people said.
An Alcatel-Lucent spokesman couldn't immediately be reached.
The new debt deal may catch Alcatel-Lucent investors by surprise, given that recent reports suggested the company would raise more like €1 billion, and people familiar with the matter said last week that the deal wouldn't likely be completed this year. Together with existing cash it has on hand, the deal will enable Alcatel-Lucent to pay off two to three years worth of debt maturities, the people said The fully committed new loans are expected to have maturities of roughly five years.
The loan agreement is a big bet for Credit Suisse and Goldman, which will be on the hook for the debt at least until they can syndicate it out to investors, which is not expected until January. That could leave the banks vulnerable to any market shocks between now and then, such as any negative fallout from discussions aimed at keeping the U.S. from going over the so-called fiscal cliff.
While Alcatel-Lucent has ample cash on hand, it needs a bigger cushion to help ease investors' concerns about its solvency—and to avoid spooking potential clients. It is seeking time to implement €1.25 billion in cost cuts the company says it needs to reverse years of negative cash flow.
Alcatel-Lucent had the option of raising €2.1 billion from the banks but opted for the lesser amount, the people said. By raising the badly needed funds from the banks, Alcatel-Lucent can avoid selling additional shares, a last-resort option that likely would have pummeled the stock and could have cost management led by Chief Executive Ben Verwaayen their jobs.
Alcatel-Lucent's networking business is one of its gems, logging 20% growth in revenue in the third quarter of 2012 compared with a decline in total Alcatel-Lucent revenue of 9.7%.
The business could be worth €4.53 billion in liquidation, according to estimates from Bernstein Research, far more than the entire company's current market capitalization of €1.99 billion as of the close of Paris trading Thursday.
Alcatel's patent portfolio is another one of the company's most valuable assets. The company, the product of the 2006 merger of France's Alcatel and Lucent Technologies of the U.S., has more than 27,900 patents. Bell Labs scientists have made a string of important discoveries dating back to the dawn of telecommunications.