Bouygues agrees to sell network to Free if it buys SFR

News General France 10 MRT 2014
Bouygues agrees to sell network to Free if it buys SFR

French operator Bouygues Telecom has reached an agreement to sell its mobile network of 15,000 base stations to Free Mobile for EUR 1.8 billion if Bouygues's merger with Vivendi's SFR is successful. Bouygues CEO Olivier Roussat announced the deal to French paper Le Journal du Dimanche, and Free confirmed the agreement in a statement. The deal to divest Bouygues's mobile network and some frequencies pre-empts the Competition Authority's anticipated remedies and levels the playing field with Numericable, the cable operator that is also vying for SFR but has no mobile network. 

French industry minister Arnaud Montebourg said in Le Parisien that “Competition through destruction will stop if we return to three mobile operators while keeping prices low. It will not stop if Numericable acquires SFR, because there will still be four competing mobile networks”. If the deal goes ahead, Free Mobile will benefit from owning a ready-made national network, rather than having to buy capacity on Orange's. Free said it would finance the deal with cash and bank debt, without an increase in capital. 

It is now up to Vivendi to decide whether to accept Bouygues or Numericable’s offer. Vivendi insiders told Les Echos that Bouygues’s move re-balances the choice which was previously weighed in Numericable’s favour. 

Categories:

General

Companies:

Bouygues Telecom,  SFR,  Vivendi,  Free Mobile,  Numericable

Countries:

France

Tags:

Voice services, Data services, Network Access, Unified communications, Network equipment, Wireline, Wireless, Internet Access, 4G - LTE, M&A buyouts & divestments

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