France Telecom gets £1.5bn in chip stock sell-off

NEWS France Telcom has sold off E2.48bn (£1.5bn) of stock and bonds in chip giant STMicroelectronics in an effort to cut its E65bn (£40bn) debt mountain. The move is in line with similar decisions at rivals British Telecom and Deutsche Telekom, as the former nationalised telcos seek to offload assets to improve their balance sheets. According to reports on Bloomberg, France Telecom planned to sell the STMicroelectronics stock by the end of the year, but instead decided to take advantage of the recent rally in chip stock prices. The sell-off reduces France Telecom's 11 per cent stake in the chip firm to just 1.2 per cent.