PARIS Bouygues Telecom, Free-iliad Group and Orange have submitted a non-binding offer to acquire a large part of the telecommunications activities of the Altice group in France.
While ensuring continuity of service for SFR customers and in a mature market, the deal would make it possible to:
- step up investments in superfast network resilience, in cyber security and in new technologies such as artificial intelligence;
- consolidate control over strategic infrastructure in France; and
- maintain a competitive ecosystem for the benefit of consumers.
Today, Bouygues Telecom, Free-iliad Group and Orange submitted a joint non-binding offer to enter into negotiations with a view to acquiring a range of activities from the Altice group in France. It covers most of SFR’s assets, but excludes, in particular, stakes in Intelcia, UltraEdge and XP Fibre and Altice Technical Services, as well as the Altice group’s activities in French overseas departments and regions.
This offer corresponds to a total enterprise value of €17 billion for the Altice group assets concerned in France and gives an indicative implied enterprise value for the whole of Altice France of more than €21 billion.
Bouygues Telecom, Free-iliad Group and Orange envisage to share out the targeted activities as follows:
- the B2B business to be taken over mainly by Bouygues Telecom, and by Free-iliad Group;
- the B2C business to be shared between Bouygues Telecom, Free-iliad Group and Orange;
- the other assets and resources (in particular infrastructure and frequencies) to be shared between Bouygues Telecom, Free-iliad Group and Orange, with the exception of SFR’s mobile network in less densely populated areas, to be taken over by Bouygues Telecom.
The split of price and value would be around 43% for Bouygues Telecom, 30% for Free-iliad Group and 27% for Orange.
Subject to the seller’s acceptance of the non-binding offer, the submission of a confirmatory offer will be conditional upon the completion of due diligence, as well as a financial and operational assessment confirming the assumptions of the indicative offer.
The transaction will be subject to prior consultation with the relevant employee representative bodies. It will then have to be cleared by the relevant regulatory authorities before it can be completed.
At the end of these stages, any assets that cannot be transferred immediately to each of the three operators concerned would be transferred to a joint company responsible for managing operations during a transition period that would notably allow for the gradual migration of customers. The joint company will rely on Altice group employees.