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...