Telecom bid battle shaping up: Bouygues reportedly wants to buy Vivendi's SFR
- 10 years ago
French conglomerate Bouygues is reportedly in the race to buy Vivendi’s telecom unit SFR, along with Numericable.
Sources said it has submitted an offer. French newspaper Les Echos reported in its Wednesday edition that Bouygues’ bid was “around 15 billion euros” and would be financed with borrowing and a capital increase.
According to the reports the family-owned construction-to-media group will also make pledges on jobs and network investments to win support for its bid.
Bouygues, which is France’s third-biggest mobile phone operator, is said to be willing to sell mobile spectrum and some of its 15,000 mobile antennas to address competition regulators’ concerns that the tie-up would create a dominant player. SFR is the second largest operator in France.
The French cable operator Numericable has also made a preliminary offer of roughly 14.75 billion euros.
Vivendi wants to cut its exposure to telecoms to focus more on its media businesses.
It had been planning to split off SFR into a separate company this summer, but is now open to selling if it gets an attractive enough offer, sources had said earlier.
Sources said it has submitted an offer. French newspaper Les Echos reported in its Wednesday edition that Bouygues’ bid was “around 15 billion euros” and would be financed with borrowing and a capital increase.
According to the reports the family-owned construction-to-media group will also make pledges on jobs and network investments to win support for its bid.
Bouygues, which is France’s third-biggest mobile phone operator, is said to be willing to sell mobile spectrum and some of its 15,000 mobile antennas to address competition regulators’ concerns that the tie-up would create a dominant player. SFR is the second largest operator in France.
The French cable operator Numericable has also made a preliminary offer of roughly 14.75 billion euros.
Vivendi wants to cut its exposure to telecoms to focus more on its media businesses.
It had been planning to split off SFR into a separate company this summer, but is now open to selling if it gets an attractive enough offer, sources had said earlier.