Investment bankers are preening themselves for the mandate to sell Wanadoo's Pages Jaunes directory business for up to €3bn ($2.9bn) in what could be the first in a series of significant asset disposals to reduce France Télécom's €70bn debt mountain.

Thierry Bréton, the new chief executive of France Télécom, will submit his action plan to the French state, France Télécom's majority shareholder, at the end of November. Sources close to the company anticipate a capital increase of up to €15bn will form the central part of the strategy but that this will be accompanied by asset disposals and an ambitious cost-cutting programme.