Alcatel-Lucent, the result of a recent merger between the two telecom giants, said yesterday it would open its Asia Pacific headquarters in Shanghai.
Frederic Rose, former Alcatel Asia Pacific's president, has been appointed Alcatel-Lucent Asia Pacific president. Gerald Dega, Alcatel Shanghai Bell's (ASB) president, is in charge of the new company's business in China.
"We choose Shanghai because of the investment-friendly environment in Pudong and we will expand business in China through the platform ASB," Rose said in a Chinese-language statement.
In 2000, Alcatel was the first multinational company to set up an Asia Pacific headquarters in Shanghai. Before the merger, Lucent's Asia Pacific headquarters was in Singapore.
The two companies completed their merger in December. Their combined revenue was 18.6 billion euros (US$23.9 billion) in 2005, the latest figures available.
"More Asia Pacific headquarters and innovation centers have moved into Shanghai and that shows the city's strong positions in the investment environment and other conditions," said Zhou Yupeng, Shanghai's vice mayor, who also attended the opening ceremony.
More than 500 regional headquarters, investment firms and research centers have moved into Shanghai, according to Zhou without providing comparative figures.
In the global telecom industry, several huge-scale mergers have happened, such as Alcatel and Lucent, Nokia and Siemens' networks division and BenQ and Siemens' mobile phone units.
China, with 455 million mobile phone users, is expected to launch 3G licenses this year and telecom equipment makers, including Alcatel-Lucent, Nokia-Siemens and Huawei, all hope to grab more market share in the multi-billion-dollar market. Source:Shanghai Daily Copyright 2007 Associated Press
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