ALCATEL TO REPORT QUARTERLY AFTER WARNING ON PROFITS.

Alcatel, the French telecommunications equipment group, is planning to respond to analysts' calls for greater transparency by joining the small band of large French companies that publishes quarterly profit figures. Jean-Pierre Halbron, finance director, made the disclosure in an interview, saying the company would start producing the figures, with a delay of about a month, from the second half of next year. The move will be widely interpreted as a reaction to the severity of the market's response to last month's unexpected profits warning. More than FFr 70bn (USD12.6bn) was wiped from the group's stock market value in a single September day after it warned that 1998 operating profit would be below expectations.In spite of the start of a share buy-back programme, the shares remain near their close on that day. Alcatel said it had repurchased some 4.5m shares to date. The board has approved a buy-back programme for a maximum of 10% of the company's capital. Mr Halbron also confirmed that the Securities and Exchange Commission, the US securities...