The CEO of French cableco Numericable has reportedly said a tie-up with telco SFR would make sense in the highly-competitive local market.
Eric Denoyer told French newspaper Le Figaro that a merger between Numericable, the nation’s largest high-speed…
The CEO of French cableco Numericable has reportedly said a tie-up with telco SFR would make sense in the highly-competitive local market.
Eric Denoyer told French newspaper Le Figaro that a merger between Numericable, the nation’s largest high-speed broadband internet provider, and SFR, the telecoms unit of conglomerate Vivendi, would create value for both. He said such a tie-up has been closely looked at as “it responds to a real industrial logic”.
Denoyer noted that the arrival of Iliad’s Free Mobile has prompted competitors to reassess their goals and seek out ways to streamline their investments.
However, his comments do not accord with those made by SFR CEO, Stephane Roussel, who recently told Le Parisien newspaper that the company was not up for sale and never had been, adding that a merger is also not on the agenda.
According to the Le Figaro report, Vivendi intends to publically clarify its strategy after a general meeting on 30 April.
There has been much speculation about consolidation in the French telecoms market since Free Mobile made its market debut in January 2012. However, the chairman of competition authority Autorite de la Concurrence has spoken out against consolidation, saying he would oppose a proposed merger between operators. He noted that he would not stand in the way of network sharing agreements.
Last December, SFR and Bouygues Telecom confirmed that they had held discussions about sharing their networks. The latter released a short statement saying the operators are looking at pooling their resources in less populous areas of France, identified by the government as “priority deployment” zones for 4G technology.
Vivendi is said to have held talks with several operators, also including Free. French media have reported that the Autorite de la Concurrence opposed a merger proposal by Vivendi and Free last month.
There has also been talk of a tie-up between Bouygues Telecom and Free.
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