At around 9:55 a.m. GMT, Bouygues shares jumped 8.1% after gaining more than 9.6% earlier in the session and were among the best performers on the CAC 40, which was up 2.6% at the same time. Orange gained 3.7% after rising more than 5%.
Bouygues Telecom, Free-Groupe Iliad, and Orange announced on Tuesday that they had submitted a joint non-binding offer to acquire a large part of Altice France's business for a total of €17 billion.
The offer targets most of the assets of the operator SFR but excludes holdings in Intelcia, UltraEdge, XP Fibre, Altice Technical Services, and the Altice group's activities in France's overseas departments and territories, the three operators said in a joint statement.
The offer was "immediately rejected," SFR CEO Arthur Dreyfuss said in a short message to the group's employees, which Reuters was able to view.
The rejection was subsequently confirmed in a statement by Bouygues, which made no further comment.
"We believe that the overall impact on the French telecommunications market will be positive, as fierce competition reduces the ability to accelerate the rollout of the 5G network throughout France," ING analysts wrote in a note published on Wednesday.
In the note, they estimate that the regulator and Altice France will likely agree on a transaction because the risk of a second financial restructuring of the group founded by Patrick Drahi "is not a favorable option."
SPECULATION IN ITALY
After months of negotiations with its creditors, Altice France announced in August that the Paris Commercial Court had approved its accelerated safeguard procedure providing for a restructuring of the group's heavy debt, a decision that raised questions about the future of the SFR subsidiary.
French Economy Minister Roland Lescure told RTL on Wednesday that the government would be extremely vigilant about this offer.
"I will be extremely vigilant about this operation (...) I will be vigilant about two things: the impact on consumer prices and the impact on service quality," he said, stressing that France currently has mobile phone prices and subscriptions "among the cheapest in Europe."
The offer has also sparked reactions elsewhere in Europe, particularly in Italy, where Telecom Italia (TIM) shares rose by up to 5% in the morning, with analysts pointing out that the deal reinforces hopes for consolidation in the national telecommunications sector.
"The news is positive (...) because it initiates a process of consolidation among telecommunications operators in a European market that could serve as a reference for the Italian market," said consulting firm Equita.
For its part, Banca Akros points out that the offer shows "the potential need for Iliad to monetize its Italian assets in order to finance the transaction and could encourage Iliad to redouble its efforts to consolidate the Italian market as well."
(Written by Diana Mandiá, with Gianluca Lo Nostro, Philippe Leroy Beaulieu, and Alessandro Parodi, edited by Blandine Hénault)
