Alcatel-Lucent repays $1.75 billion loan secured with patents

PARIS (Reuters) - Telecoms network equipment maker Alcatel-Lucent said on Wednesday it had made an early repayment of a $1.75 billion (1.05 billion pounds)loan that was secured with the group's patents.

The early repayment of the senior secured loan is a part of a turnaround plan, dubbed Shift, which targets positive free cash flow by the end of 2015.

"Through the measures we have taken to strengthen our balance sheet, we have also been able to regain control of our own destiny, in particular, the release of intellectual property," Michel Combes, Chief Executive of Alcatel-Lucent said in a statement.

Alcatel repaid on Tuesday the outstanding amount of $1.724 billion with proceeds from bonds convertible for new or existing shares, maturing in 2019 and 2020, and available cash. The loan was secured by patents and other intellectual property rights. These pledges are now cancelled and released.

(Reporting by Maya Nikolaeva; editing by David Clarke)