Vivendi starts studying Bouygues' latest offer for SFR

News General France 31 MRT 2014
Vivendi starts studying Bouygues' latest offer for SFR

Vivendi’s ad hoc committee handling the sale of French telecom subsidiary SFR has started to study Bouygues Telecom’s proposal, but has not yet engaged it in negotiations, reports Le Monde. Vivendi is in three weeks of exclusive talks and due diligence with rival bidder Numericable until 4 April, but the committee cannot ignore the offer of EUR 1.4 billion more cash than Numericable. It will be able to compare the offers side by side on 4 April, but will probably need a certain amount of time to choose one over the other, a person close to the matter told Le Monde.

Separately, French financial markets authority AMF has reminded listed companies Altice/Numericable, Bouygues and Vivendi to respect financial communication rules even though SFR itself is not listed. The regulator said that so far it had received only partial replies to its requests for further information and warned the three companies that they face penalties if they do not provide the market with “accurate, precise and sincere” information.

Categories:

General

Companies:

Bouygues Telecom,  SFR,  Vivendi,  Altice Europe,  Numericable

Countries:

France

Tags:

Voice services, Data services, Unified communications, Messaging, Wireline, Wireless, Internet Access, M&A buyouts & divestments

Related Articles

FRANCE 21 JUN 2015

Numericable-SFR makes takeover bid for Bouygues Telecom

French cable and mobile operator Numericable-SFR has made an offer for Bouygues Telecom, a person close to Martin Bouygues told Le Monde, corroborating a report in Le Journal du Dimanche, which wrote that the bid was worth a little over EUR 10 billion. Numericable-SFR is expected to get all 11 million Bouygues Telecom customers. An agreement has reportedly been found to avoid competition-related obstacles, with Free acquiring some of Bouygues Telecom's spectrum, masts and stores. Bouygues's board will meet

FRANCE 4 APR 2014

Bouygues offers more cash, less equity in latest bid for SFR

French conglomerate Bouygues submitted a revised offer to acquire SFR from Vivendi on 4 April, with a EUR 1.85 billion increase in the cash element to EUR 15 billion. Bouygues proposes to offer Vivendi a smaller, 10 percent stake in the merged entity, which is expected to be worth EUR 1 billion before synergies and EUR 2 billion including them. As declared previously, Bouygues is offering a EUR 500 million earn-out clause, which could bring the total value of SFR to EUR 16.5 billion before synergies. Bouygu

FRANCE 2 APR 2014

Both Bouygues offers for SFR are still on the table

French conglomerate Bouygues has maintained the validity of the acquisition offer of 12 March for operator SFR, in response to requests from certain unnamed Vivendi shareholders. This offer gives Vivendi a larger interest in the new SFR-Bouygues Telecom entity and therefore a greater share of the resulting synergies and value creation. Under this offer, Vivendi would receive EUR 11.3 billion in cash and a 43 percent interest in the new entity. Bouygues has made a commitment to facilitate the liquidity of Vi

FRANCE 1 APR 2014

Bouygues extends SFR takeover offer until 25 April

French conglomerate Bouygues has informed Vivendi that it has extended the validity of its 20 March offer for telecom operator SFR from 8 April until 25 April. Bouygues had previously given Vivendi only 4 days between the end of its exclusive negotiating period with rival Numericable. Bouygues said the move is intended "to allow Vivendi the time to examine its offer in a calm and detailed manner, and to proceed with all the necessary discussions that such an important operation requires." Bouygues confirmed

FRANCE 28 MRT 2014

Bouygues pledges to not cut jobs at SFR for 3 years

French conglomerate Bouygues has written to French operator SFR and its parent company Vivendi to pledge that if Bouygues' takeover bid were accepted it would keep the workforce for three years from the time the contract is signed. The move follows a similar commitment made by rival bidder Altice-Numericable.

FRANCE 27 MRT 2014

Altice guarantees no layoffs for 3 years if it buys SFR

French investment company Altice and its cable operator subsidiary Numericable have written a letter to Vivendi and SFR guaranteeing that there would be no mass job cuts as part of a restructuring if it acquires SFR. Jobs will be guaranteed for three years from the end of its exclusive negotiation period on 4 April. The letter published by Les Echos and signed by Altice chairman Patrick Drahi, CEO Dexter Goei and Numericable CEO Eric Denoyer justifies the commitment by indicating that there is no overlap be

FRANCE 25 MRT 2014

SFR's unions seek job guarantees from Bouygues, Numericable

French operator SFR's unions have drafted an employment agreement that they will send to Bouygues and Numericable, who have bid to buy SFR from Vivendi, on 26 March, reports La Tribune, which has seen the document. The unions call on the eventual buyer to maintain employment at the end-2013 level of around 9,000 workers for at least 4 years. They are also seeking a guarantee for net salaries to be maintained for 4 years at SFR and affiliates such as store operator SFD, business operator Telindus, in the pro

FRANCE 25 MRT 2014

Bouygues adds EUR 500 mln break-up fee to SFR bid - report

French conglomerate Bouygues did not only improve the cash element of its takeover bid for Vivendi's operator SFR, but also included a break up-up fee of between EUR 500 million and EUR 1 billion if the competition authority blocked the operation, a person familiar with the matter told La Tribune newspaper. The break-up fee would also be used if the authority imposed remedies that offset the estimated EUR 10 billion of synergies to be gained from the acquisition. Another source close to the discussions conf

FRANCE 21 MRT 2014

Bouygues raises bid for SFR

Bouygues Telecom has raised its takeover bid for SFR, beating an earlier offer from Altice accepted by Vivendi. Bouygues raised the cash element of its bid by EUR 1.85 billion, to a total EUR 13.15 billion, plus a 21 percent stake for Vivendi in the new company created from merging Bouygues Telecom and SFR. This is EUR 1.4 billion more than the offer from Altice, the owner of cable operator Numericable. Bouygues said it was convinced of the "industrial strength" created from a merger of its telecom operatio

FRANCE 14 MRT 2014

Vivendi enters exclusive talks to sell SFR to Altice

French media and telecom group Vivendi board has chosen the offer of Altice for SFR, rejecting a lower bid from Bouygues Telecom. The company said its supervisory board will enter into exclusive negotiations with Altice for three weeks in order to reach a final agreement. The company said it considers the offer from Altice, which owns cable operator Numericable, to be the most pertinent for the group's shareholders and employees, with the opportunity for effective execution. Vivendi said the offer also achi

FRANCE 13 MRT 2014

Numericable sweetens offer for SFR - report

Altice has raised its offer for SFR, following an improved bid from rival Bouygues Telecom, the paper Le Figaro reported. Altice, the owner of French cable operator Numericable, is now offering EUR 11.75 billion cash, compared to EUR 11.3 billion from Bouygues, people familiar with the matter told the paper. A committee at Vivendi will consider the bids 13 March, and the full board will discuss the offers on 14 March. Unlike Bouygues, Altice did not make a public announcement about the higher offer. The com

FRANCE 13 MRT 2014

Bouygues raises offer for SFR

French conglomerate Bouygues has submitted an improved offer to Vivendi for mobile and broadband operator SFR. Bouygues lifted its offer by EUR 1 billion, of which EUR 800 million in cash, to a total EUR 11.3 billion in cash and a 43 percent interest in the new entity, Bouygues Telecom-SFR. This new offer values SFR at EUR 15.5 billion pre-synergies and at nearly EUR 20 billion after factoring in all the synergies, Bouygues said. Under the improved offer, Bouygues' interest in the combined entity would be 5

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

FRANCE 6 MRT 2014

Bouygues, Numericable make takeover bids for SFR

Vivendi has confirmed that Bouygues Telecom and Altice, the owner of cable operator Numericable, have made binding offers for its French operator SFR. Numericable did not disclose financial details of the offers, but Bouygues said its offer values SFR at around EUR 14.5 billion. Mindful of the French government's concerns about unemployment, Bouygues also said if its bid succeeds, there would be no forced redundancies. Bouygues bid includes EUR 10.5 billion cash and a 46 percent stake for Vivendi in the mer

Just In

19 DEC 16:42

SLT-Mobitel launches 5G network in Sri Lanka

19 DEC 16:19

Dialog Axiata launches 5G network, connects 1.5 million subscribers

19 DEC 15:56

UK govt to ban AI-enabled nudification apps to protect women, girls

19 DEC 15:42

3 UK launches last-minute Christmas sale

Commentary

13:56

Video market set for slower growth ahead

11:38

Netflix buys Warner Bros to deepen content catalogue

11:11

KPN's mixed performance in Q3 raises questions for strategy day

15:26

Stock markets breaking records but what happened to Odido's IPO plans?

Background

01:04

The week in telecom: Wi-Fi bolt-ons take off to boost broadband growth, video market works on consolidation

01:39

The week in telecom: Netflix wins bidding for Warner Bros, Apple poaches new execs, Samsung debuts trifold

13:51

Proximus vs. Telenet: Proximus performs better in Q3 while Telenet uses up cash

14:16

Proximus Domestic still struggling with low margins

Complete profile

Before downloading the whitepaper, we would like to ask you to complete your profile with company and position. After confirming you will receive the white paper.