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France Telecom SA(FTE)has received interest from private-equity firms seeking a minority stake in its 50-50 U.K. venture with Deutsche Telekom AG (DTE), Chief Executive Officer Stephane Richard said, Bloomberg reported.

The largest French phone company hasn't made a decision on the future of the business, recently renamed EE, and could instead go for an initial public offering of its shares, Richard said yesterday in an interview at an industry conference in Montpellier, France.

"We want to keep control of the asset, and so do the Germans," Richard said. "That said, there is a possibility that we can give ourselves some financial headroom by opening EE's capital to a minority shareholder or through an IPO, but we haven't yet decided."

France Telecom's stock jumped as much as 2.4 percent from its intraday level yesterday after Richard's comments. A stake sale in the unit with an estimated value of 12 billion euros ($15.3 billion) would help France Telecom bolster its finances as intensifying competition at home and Europe's slowing economy hurt earnings. Its debt rating was lowered for the first time in a decade last month and the carrier cut its dividend to keep borrowings under control.

France Telecom, based in Paris, was little changed at 8.22 euros at 9:16 a.m. Paris time. Deutsche Telekom fell 0.1 percent to 8.34 euros on the Frankfurt exchange.