On November 13, 2001 a warm, colourful and memorable ceremony was held at Hyundai Mipo Dockyard (South Korea) on the occasion of the naming of the three state-of-the-art Cable Laying and Repair vessels which will be owned and operated by Alda Marine, a special-purpose joint venture between Alcatel Submarine Networks and Louis Dreyfus Armateurs (SNC).

Mrs Charlotte Lezius-Doncel, elder daughter of Philippe and Anne Louis-Dreyfus, very gracefully named "Ile de Sein" whereas "Ile de Batz" and 'Ile de Bréhat" were named by Mrs Reinaudo, the wife of Christian Reinaudo President of Alcatel Optics Group, and Mrs Spithill, the wife of Ron Spithill President of Alcatel Asia Pacific, respectively.

A number of French officials were also in attendance, including H.E. François Descoueyte, the French Ambassador to Korea, Mr Yves de Ricaud, Conseiller Economique et Commercial at the French Embassy, Mr Xavier Fraval de Coatparquet, Attaché Commercial, Mr Michel Meynet, a Director at the Ministry of Transports, elected representatives from Ile de Sein and Ile de Batz, senior representatives from the lending banks and officials from Bureau Veritas. Other guests included officials from Korea Telecom, Alcatel Group and LDA.

Upon delivery from the shiyard between December 2001 and early 2002 the vessels, named after tiny but beautiful islands off Brittany, will start their long term time-charter employment with Alcatel Submarine Networks. All three fly the French flag, are crewed and technically managed by LDA and stand out from other similar vessels due to their unique powering and positioning capabilities and their unequal maneuvering ability and storage capacity. With a complement of over fifty crew and engineers, each vessel can store upto 7.000 kilometers of 1.7 cm thick cables, lay them on the seabed down to 6000 meters below sealevel or into three meter deep selfmade trenches down to 1500 meters below sealevel.