Tchuruk Sees French Lead Defence Shake-Up

He said if Alcatel beat rival Lagardre in the bid battle for Thomson, the French national electronics group, it would bring in foreign partners, but retain the majority stake and operational control of any enlarged defence business.

Tchuruk told French newspaper Le Figaro the enlarged group would be bigger in defence and space than any other European group.

His remarks will set the stage for tough negotiations with General Electric Company of the UK, and possibly Daimler-Benz Aerospace (Dasa) of Germany, if Alcatel wins control of Thomson. GEC believes a group made up of its Marconi defence business and Thomsons defence arm, Thomson-CSF, would be the first European company capable of achieving the economies of scale of US rivals.

 

Thomson-CSF has annual sales of FFr36 billion and is strong in avionics, communications and missiles.

Marconi, with defence sales of