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France telecom selling 130 bln Ffr assets by 2002

PARIS: French telecoms operator France Telecom said on Thursday it had a war-chest of non-strategic assets worth 130 billion french francs ($19.84 billion) which it could sell by the end of 2001.

"Our non-strategic assets, i.e., non-core business, has a market value of 130 billion French francs," France Telecom Chairman Michel Bon told a news conference. "We expect to sell them (these assets) by the end of 2001," Bon told Reuters after the news conference.

He said some 65 billion francs of the total assets were tied up in Sprint Corp. , its outoing partner in global corporate telecoms venture Global One.

Bon said France Telecom expected to sell its 10 percent stake in Sprint following the completion of Sprint's merger with MCI WorldCom . France Telecom said late on Wednesday it was buying the 71 percent of Global One it does not own from Deutsche Telekom and Sprint for $3.88 billion in cash and $464 million of assumed debt.-Reuters