Telecommunications equipment maker Alcatel-Lucent said last Thursday it would cut costs by eliminating 5,000 jobs by the end of 2013.

Alcatel, which posted a second-quarter loss of €254 million, did not provide details on the job cuts but did tell AFP that they would not affect the group’s research and development capacities.

Alcatel-Lucent employs 78,000 people worldwide.

The company’s chief executive Ben Verwaayen said it was launching a restructuring plan dubbed “The performance programme to accelerate our transformation and reduce costs by €1.25 billion by the end of next year in order to keep ahead of market realities”.

Verwaayen stressed that “these times demand firm actions”, before adding that the programme “will involve shrinking our employee base and exiting certain non-profitable contracts”.

After warning on July 17 that it would miss its 2012 profitability target, Alcatel said that it suffered a second-quarter net loss of €254 million, compared with a small profit of €43 million in the same period a year earlier.

The company’s operating result showed a loss of €86 million, against a year-earlier profit of €22 million, on sales that fell by 7.1 per cent to €3.5 billion.

Alcatel said it continued to cut its debt and was now aiming for “a strong positive net cash position at the end of the year 2012”.

Investors shunned the stock however, and Alcatel shares showed the biggest loss in early trading on the Paris stock exchange, losing 6.97 per cent to €0.814 in a market that was 0.10 per cent higher overall.