PARIS (AP) -- Alcatel-Lucent SA said Friday it has agreed to sell its remaining 21-percent stake in defense contractor Thales SA to plane maker Dassault Aviation for euro1.57 billion ($2.3 billion) in an all-French deal.
The telecommunications equipment maker had been in talks toward the deal with Dassault Aviation, the builder of Mirage and Rafale fighters, since last month. The deal still requires the approval of antitrust regulators and is expected to be completed in the spring, Alcatel-Lucent said in a statement.
The agreement calls for Alcatel-Lucent to sell its Thales stake for euro38 a share. In midday trading in Paris, Thales shares were down 0.7 percent to euro28.50. Alcatel-Lucent stock fell 1.5 percent to euro1.56.
Thales' largest shareholder is the French state, which controls 27 percent of its shares. In a separate statement Friday, France's Finance Ministry said it has struck a shareholder pact with Dassault Aviation that is nearly identical to the one the state had with Alcatel-Lucent.
Between them, the state and Dassault Aviation will control 53 percent of Thales' capital and 61 percent of its voting rights, the ministry said.
Alcatel had been a shareholder in Thales since 1998, when the defense company -- then named Thomson CSF -- was privatized.
Last month, Alcatel-Lucent chief executive Ben Verwaayen said his company could afford to shed its stake in Thales because the companies' business ties would remain. They jointly led a consortium that recently won euro50 million in contracts with the subway operator in Shanghai, China, to provide communications and signaling systems for a new metro project.
