Dassault’s proposal to buy Alcatel-Lucent’s minority stake in Thales, the French aerospace electronics group, looks like a good deal. For Ben Verwaayen, the former BT chief appointed as Alcatel-Lucent’s chief executive in September, it would accelerate his efforts to streamline the world’s biggest supplier of fixed-line telephone networks, which has struggled since it was formed by a merger between Alcatel of France and Lucent of the US in 2006.

Selling its 20.8 per cent stake in Thales would also boost Alcatel’s cash reserves at a time when it and other telecoms suppliers are braced for a long and painful recession. The price under discussion – €1.57bn – would more than cover Alcatel’s almost €1bn in debt payments set to come due by February. Although Alcatel has €4.5bn in cash reserves, Goldman Sachs estimates it is burning through some €1bn a year.