By Najat Kantouar
French telecom operator Altice, owned by billionaire Patrick Drahi, rejected a joint nonbinding offer from Bouygues, Orange and Free-iliad Group for a large part of its business for 17 billion euros ($19.74 billion).
The three French telecom majors put forward an offer for most of Altice France's telecoms activities, known as SFR, late Tuesday. The offer didn't include SFR's stakes in Intelcia, UltraEdge, XP Fibre, Altice Technical Services nor Altice's activities in French overseas departments and regions.
Under a potential deal, Bouygues and Free-iliad would have overseen Altice's business-to-business operations, while all three companies would have shared Altice's business-to-consumer entity as well as other assets and resources, such as infrastructure and frequencies. Bouygues would have taken over SFR's mobile network in less densely populated areas, the companies said.
The approach raised hopes for consolidation in France's telecom sector. Morgan Stanley analysts wrote in a note to clients last month that French telecommunications companies could look to combine given that the country ranks among Europe's most competitive telecoms markets.
Bouygues Telecom, Free-iliad Group and Orange said they had taken note of Altice's rejection, but added that a deal would still be beneficial for all companies, their clients, employees, creditors and shareholders.
"Such a project would both preserve a competitive ecosystem to the benefit of consumers and support continued investment in national telecom infrastructure," the companies said in a joint statement.
The companies said that they would seek to engage with Altice and its shareholders to evaluate whether and how their project can move forward.
Bouygues shares closed 7.4% higher on Wednesday, while Orange shares closed up 3.3%. Year to date, shares in both companies have risen more than 45%.
Write to Najat Kantouar at najat.kantouar@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
10-15-25 1319ET
