Telecompaper

French fixed and mobile operator SFR will join France Telecom-Orange and Bouygues Telecom's complaint to the European Commission about the French government lowering the entry price for the country's fourth mobile network operator to EUR 240 million, SFR parent company Vivendi's chairman, Jean-Bernard Levy, told Les Echos in an interview before the group's interim results press conference. Levy said that after paying EUR 619 million for their licences, existing network operators (Orange, SFR and Bouygues) feel they have been subjected to unfair treatment as the government is now selling spectrum at below market value. "How do we know that the government's aid to the fourth operator will not benefit Asian equipment manufacturers?", he asks. "Does France really need a fourth operator while several other countries are moving from four to three? It has just happened in Australia, is imminent in Spain and the UK and may take place in the US". Levy confirmed that Vivendi would like to buy out minority shareholders in SFR and Canal Plus. There is no change at SFR, where Vodafone is unwilling to sell, and at Canal Plus, Vivendi will buy TF1 and M6's 15 percent at the end of the year. He said there were no talks underway between the group and Lagardere, which has the option of buying another 14 percent of Canal Plus to boost its holding to 34 percent. As for the aborted possibility of buying the African mobile assets of Kuwait's Zain, Levy said that leaks precipitated discussions somewhat and that Zain did not accept the offer put forward by Vivendi, which was not ready to pay more than the assets were worth. The group will continue to look for opportunities in emerging markets, where it currently generates under 20 percent of its revenues. In the next 15 years, more of the world's economy will be based in emerging markets and Vivendi will have to reflect this transfer of growth, he concluded.