Bouygues, Orange, Iliad in $24 Billion Talks to Buy Altice's French Telecoms Assets

By Najat Kantouar and Elena Vardon

France's Bouygues, Orange and Free-iliad Group are in exclusive talks with Altice Group for the acquisition of most of its French telecommunications operations, and have put forward an offer valuing the assets at 20.35 billion euros ($23.98 billion).

The parties revived discussions in January following months of negotiations after Altice--owned by French-Israeli billionaire Patrick Drahi--rejected a 17 billion-euro offer including debt from the three companies for a large part of its French telecom business, called SFR.

The consortium has been granted an exclusivity period until May 15 to wrap up the terms of the deal and transaction documents, Bouygues Telecom, Free-iliad Group, Orange and Altice said Friday in a joint statement.

Write to Najat Kantouar at [e-mail] and to Elena Vardon at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

04-17-26 0243ET