okia Gets Green Light From France for Alcatel-Lucent Offer Font size: A | A | A 9:08 AM ET 10/21/15 | Dow Jones

By Jens Hansegard 

Finland's Nokia (NOK) said Wednesday that it has received approval from the French Ministry of Economy to proceed with the filing of its public exchange offer for Alcatel-Lucent, and thus has satisfied all of the material conditions for the proposed transaction. 

"We firmly believe that this combination is a long-term value creation opportunity for both sets of investors and other stakeholders," Nokia Chief Executive Rajeev Suri said in a statement. 

Nokia said it intends to proceed with the filing of its offer for Alcatel-Lucent, comprised of a French public exchange offer and a U.S. public exchange offer.

Once the exchange offer period opens, the proposed transaction will remain subject to approval by Nokia shareholders and the successful closing of the offer, with the settlement date expected to be in the first quarter of 2016.