FIVE GROUPS APPLY TO BUY FRENCH TELEPHONE GROUP Five consortia have applied to buy the French state-owned telephone equipment manufacturer <Cie Generale de Constructions Telephoniques (CGCT)>, which will give the owners control of 16 pct of the French telephone switching market, sources close to Finance Minister Edouard Balladur said. The French government has given itself until the end of April to decide which applicant will be accepted, they added. While several foreign groups have said they want to gain a foothold in the French market, their potential stake in CGCT is limited to 20 pct under privatisation laws passed last year, with 80 pct to be left in French hands. The Finance Ministry sources gave no details of the groups interested in CGCT, but several have publicly announced their candidacies. U.S. Telecommunications giant American Telephone and Telegraph Co <T.N> which has been at the centre of the two-year battle for CGCT, has teamed up with the Dutch-based <Philips Telecommunications Industrie B.V.>, a subsidiary of NV Philips Gloeilampenfabriek <PGLO.AS> and <Societe Anonyme de Telecommunications> (SAT) to present a joint bid, in association with holding company Cie du Midi SA <MCDP.P> and five French investment funds. A second bid has come from the West German electronics group Siemens AG <SIEG.F>, which hopes to take a 20 pct stake in CGCT, with the French telecommunications <Jeumont-Schneider> taking the remaining 80 pct. Sweden's <AB LM Ericsson> has also submitted a bid for the maximum 20 pct permitted, in association with French defence electronics group <Matra>, which would hold between 40 and 49 pct, and construction group <Bouygues>. Matra has already acquired CGCT's private telephone business. REUTER...