HCM have rated France Telecom SA (ADR), NYSE:FTE a Must Own Telco today with a 2012 price target of $24 issued today by Shayne Heffernan.

       In a note to traders Shayne Heffernan said that with a P/E under 10 and a dividend yield of 12.5% France Telecom SA (ADR), NYSE:FTE a Must Own Telco stood out as strong value.

       France Telecom, the country’s largest phone company, is scouring Africa and the Middle East for potential acquisitions, including in some of the region’s poorest and most unstable countries, as it aims to offset slowing growth in its domestic market. In March, the Paris-based company agreed to pay $245 million for a 20 percent stake in Iraqi operator Korek Telecom, and last year bought 40 percent of Morocco’s Meditel for 640 million euros.

       France Telecom S.A. provides consumers, businesses and other telecommunications operators with a range of services, including fixed telephony and mobile telecommunications, data transmission, Internet and multimedia, and other value-added services. The Group reports seven operating segments:
      SITA and France Telecom’s Orange Business Services, announced that have agreed to jointly build a global, high performance, managed cloud computing infrastructure. Each partner will use this infrastructure to deliver its cloud services portfolio to its markets with added global reach, reliability and minimum latency. Roll out of the infrastructure has already started with the data centers of Atlanta, Frankfurt and Singapore being fully operational in Q1 2012 and all six data centers in Q3 2012.

      France, United Kingdom, Poland, Spain, Rest of the World, Enterprise and International Carrier and Shared Services (IC & SS). On April 29, 2009, the Company acquired additional 18.36 % interest in FT Espana.

     Orange is the key brand of France Telecom. It covers Internet, television and mobile services in the countries, where the Company operates. During the year ended December 31, 2009, the Company had a customer base of 193 million in 32 countries. These include 132.6 million mobile customers and 13.5 million broadband Internet (ADSL) customers worldwide. It provides mobile services and Internet services in Europe under the brand name Orange Business Services.

     The services provided by the Company include personal communication services and home communication services. In the personal communication, the Company offered data services, mobile broadband services and Internet/Business Everywhere. Home Communication services include Internet services, digital television customers and telephone services.