French cableco Numericable has reportedly signed €13.5bn worth of debt financing to back a potential merger with mobile operator SFR.
Banks working on the funding, which is a combination of loans and bonds, are Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays,…
French cableco Numericable has reportedly signed €13.5bn worth of debt financing to back a potential merger with mobile operator SFR.
Banks working on the funding, which is a combination of loans and bonds, are Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley, according to a Reuters report citing banking sources.
On Friday last week, conglomerate Vivendi entered three weeks of exclusive talks with telecoms holding Altice over the merger of two of their respective assets, SFR and Numericable.
The decision followed days of an intense bidding war between Altice and Bouygues, the parent of wireless player Bouygues Telecom.
In the end, Altice offered €11.75bn to Vivendi and a 32% share in the equity of the combined listed Numericable-SFR entity. Bouygues had bid €11.3bn and a 43% stake in a Bouygues Tel-SFR combination.
The Numericable financing, which will be denominated in both euros and dollars, will reportedly include €3bn of debt at the Altice level.
Numericable and Altice were not immediately available for comment.
Some analysts previously expressed concerns about a merged SFR-Numericable’s ability to fund its investment needs looking ahead given its high leverage.
