Alcatel-Lucent to slash 12,500 jobs, posts Q4 loss

PARIS, Feb 9 (Reuters) Recently-merged Alcatel-Lucent is stepping up job cuts to 12,500 after dipping into a fourth quarter loss and forecast a sales drop in the first quarter as tough trading and uncertainties related to the tie-up took their toll.

However, the French-American telecoms equipment provider said it expected full-year revenues to grow at least by 5 percent, in line with the telecoms carrier market.

Alcatel-Lucent, which issued a profit warning last month, made a net loss of 618 million euros (2.3 million) in the three months to Dec. 31 compared with a profit of 381 million euros a year earlier.

Workers at Alcatel-Lucent have called for a strike on Feb.

15 to protest against the job cuts which were previously expected to amount to 9,000.

Alcatel-Lucent said it now expected pre-tax savings to total 1.7 billion euros over three years. The company had previously said it expected cost-savings of 1.4 billion euros.

The group proposed a dividend of 0.16 euro a share for 2006, the same it paid for 2005.

The results are the first combined for the two groups since they started operating as a merged entity on Dec. 1.

''These figures are disappointing indeed ... but the fourth quarter does not reflect the benefits of the tie-up between Alcatel and Lucent and the growth potential of our company today,'' Finance Director Jean-Pascal Beaufret said in a conference call with journalists. ''We have suffered from tough trading conditions, namely in North America as many of our clients there are consolidating..., so when they merge they delay certain investments.'' The company declined to say by how much it expected revenues to decline in the first quarter.

REUTERS PV GC1420