Alcatel-Lucent 'actively working' on asset sales - CEO

PARIS (Reuters) - Alcatel-Lucent Chief Executive Michel Combes said the telecom equipment group was "actively working" on a previously announced asset sale plan to shed 1 billion euros $1.38 billion (860 million pounds)) worth of assets by 2015.

Speaking after third-quarter results that were well received by the market, Combes said that the improving profitability and narrower loss largely based on cost-cutting did not change his pledge to sell some assets.

"I'm not in the habit of talking about timing of asset sales, but they remain part of the Shift plan and we are actively working on them," he said, referring to his ongoing turnaround effort.

Shares were up 18.3 percent to 2.79 euros by 1248 GMT.

(Reporting by Leila Abboud, Editing by Natalie Huet)