PARIS—French telecommunications tycoon Patrick Drahi will hire Michel Combes, the outgoing chief executive of Alcatel-Lucent SA, to take top jobs at his French company Numericable-SFR SA and his holding company Altice NV, a person close to the matter said Thursday.

Mr. Combes, who is due to leave Alcatel-Lucent Sept. 1 ahead of its takeover by Finland's Nokia Corp., will become chairman of Numericable-SFR and chief operating officer at Altice, the person said, confirming news first reported by French newspaper Le Figaro.

The news has bolstered the shares of Numericable-SFR and Altice, which were up 2% and 3.9%, respectively, in Thursday morning trading.

Mr. Combes, who took over the top job at Alcatel-Lucent in April 2013, has managed to quickly turn around the struggling company through cost-cutting and asset sales and put it on track for positive free cash flow in 2015 for the first time in almost a decade.

Mr. Combes's record as a cost-cutter was certainly part of the reason why Mr. Drahi hired him, since the tycoon has repeatedly said he counts on cost-cutting to boost profitability at his French unit and generate enough cash to service the huge debt he contracted to finance the takeover of SFR, the country's second largest mobile telephone operator.

Mr. Combes was also the mastermind of the sale of Alcatel-Lucent to Nokia unveiled earlier this year. The operation was widely welcomed by investors and shareholders as it will allow the two smaller telecom equipment manufacturers to team up resources to compete with stronger rivals on world markets.

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 27, 2015 07:55 ET (11:55 GMT)

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