Nokia bid for Alcatel-Lucent opens Wednesday

An all-share offer by Finnish telecom group Nokia for its French-American rival Alcatel-Lucent will open on Wednesday, the French financial markets authority (AMF) said.

If successful, the acquisition will create the world's biggest supplier of mobile phone network equipment.

"The public offer will be open from November 18 until December 23," the authority said.

Nokia's bid was cleared by the French government last month, having already received all US regulatory approvals needed.

Nokia expects to finalise the acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent, which has only had a single year of profits since its creation in 2006, early next year.

In the all-paper operation, the Finnish operator is offering 0.55 Nokia stock for every Alcatel-Lucent share, valuing Alcatel-Lucent at 15.6 billion euros ($16.7 billion)

Nokia used to be the world's biggest mobile handset maker before selling that business to Microsoft.

It has since been concentrating on mobile networks in Europe, where Alcatel-Lucent is weak.

The French-US company, however, is well-positioned in the North American market, where Nokia is hoping to make inroads.