Jan 22 (Reuters) - French telecoms operators Orange, Bouygues Telecom and Iliad-owned Free said on Thursday they were in ongoing talks with Altice Group to buy a large part of its telecommunications activities in France.
Due diligence started in early January, the three companies said in a joint statement, though they added there was no certainty the process would result in an agreement as the legal and financial terms of the deal had not yet been agreed upon.
Orange, Bouygues Telecom and Iliad had launched a bid in October to acquire Altice's assets, valuing them at 17 billion euros ($19.9 billion), but the group owned by billionaire Patrick Drahi swiftly rejected the offer.
Altice France owns SFR, France's second-largest telecommunications provider, and any move to carve it out would help consolidate a highly-fragmented European telecoms market.
France has had four operators since Iliad's Free entered the mobile market in 2012. Any proposal to reduce that number to three would need approval from domestic and European antitrust regulators.
The three operators did not disclose any new details about the renewed push to acquire their rival. Under the previous offer, Bouygues would acquire most of the assets, followed by Iliad's Free and Orange.
French financial publication BFM Business was the first to report that the three groups were ready to put forward a new 20 billion euro bid for SFR within two months, citing multiple sources.
Bouygues, Orange and Iliad all declined to comment beyond their joint statement, which was issued in response to media reports. Altice also declined to comment.
Shares in Orange and Bouygues rose more than 3% and 2%, respectively, in early Paris trading, among the best performers on France's CAC 40 benchmark index.
($1 = 0.8554 euros)
(Reporting by Gianluca Lo Nostro in Gdansk; Additional reporting by Mara Vîlcu; editing by Milla Nissi-Prussak)
By Gianluca Lo Nostro
