France’s Bouygues has said a previous offer for mobile operator SFR remains valid, along with its new bid.
The clarification came “in response to requests from certain Vivendi shareholders,” according to a company statement.
On 12 March, Bouygues…
France’s Bouygues has said a previous offer for mobile operator SFR remains valid, along with its new bid.
The clarification came “in response to requests from certain Vivendi shareholders,” according to a company statement.
On 12 March, Bouygues offered SFR’s parent Vivendi €11.3bn in cash a 43% interest in a combined Bouygues Telecom-SFR entity.
About a week later – after Vivendi picked rival bidder Altice for three-week exclusive talks – Bouygues improved its cash offer to €13.15bn and proposed a 21.5% interest in the new entity.
Under both offers, Vivendi can exit its stake after the deal completes.
While “the 12 March offer focused on value creation”, the 20 March offer “prioritises the cash component,” Bouygues noted.
Altice’s latest official bid remains at €11.75bn in cash and a 32% stake in the resulting merger of its cable unit Numericable with SFR.
Over the last few days, Bouygues has been accelerating its efforts to win the SFR battle as the exclusive discussions between Vivendi and Altice expire this Friday.
Yesterday, the industrial and telecoms group extended its €13.15bn offer for the French wireless player by more than two weeks to 25 April, giving Vivendi more time to consider the offer once the exclusivity period with Altice has lapsed.
Bouygues also added a €500m break-up fee, payable if French regulatory authorities blocked the deal.
