Just days after improving its bid for French mobile operator SFR by €1.85bn to €13.15bn, Bouygues is looking for additional investors to be able to make a better offer.
The industrial and media group is planning to increase the cash portion of its…
Just days after improving its bid for French mobile operator SFR by €1.85bn to €13.15bn, Bouygues is looking for additional investors to be able to make a better offer.
The industrial and media group is planning to increase the cash portion of its proposal to provide SFR’s parent Vivendi with a full exit from a potential Bouygues Telecom-SFR merged entity, according to a Reuters report citing people familiar with the situation.
At present, Vivendi is in exclusive talks with Altice until 4 April. The telecoms holding, which controls cable operator Numericable, has offered €11.75bn in cash payments to SFR’s parent and a 32% stake in the new company.
A Bouygues spokesperson said the company already considers its €13.15bn bid to be better. However, the group is “working so as to be able to give Vivendi the option to sell at the closing of the deal more shares in the new company, if Vivendi so chooses”, the spokesperson added.
Banks, insurers and private equity firms have reportedly been approached.
Bouygues brought new partners into the project – the state-controlled Caisse des Depots et Consignations, the Pinault family, and JCDecaux – last week to enable it to make the new €13.15bn offer. At the time, the company said that “other investors may also participate in order to buy out all of Vivendi’s remaining interest”.
Under Bouygues’ bid, Vivendi would keep a 21.5% stake in the combined mobile operator. But the conglomerate has long planned to offload SFR to focus instead on its media operations, which include Canal+ and Universal.
Vivendi reiterated yesterday that it is still in exclusive discussions with Altice. However, given the new Bouygues offer, the conglomerate is now seeking an improved bid from Numericable’s parent, controlled by billionaire Patrick Drahi, according to a Bloomberg report citing sources close to the talks.
Experts speculate that Vivendi chose the Altice option because it was safer and faster than Bouygues’. The regulatory review of a merger with Bouygues would be more complicated, given the significant antitrust implications of a horizontal merger compared to a merger with Numericable, which is a less direct competitor.
On top of that, a deal with already listed Numericable would make it easier for Vivendi to cut its remaining stake in the merged entity quickly.
