Alcatel-Lucent announced plans to pursue an initial public offering of shares in its submarine cable business, Telecompaper.com reported on July 31, 2014. This plan comes as the company continues to exit low-growth businesses. The company plans to maintain a majority stake in the business, while the IPO will provide resources to expand business further into the oil and gas market. The listing is expected to take place in the first half of 2015.

The announcement came alongside second-quarter results showing revenues of EUR 3.28 billion ($4.39 billion), up 0.7 percent at constant exchange rates and excluding the impact of divestments. Outside of its managed services business, where it\'s been slashing a number of unprofitable contacts and countries, revenues were up 5 percent over last year, helped by a growing number of LTE contacts, especially in the US and China.