Bouygues Telecom, the telecom unit of French conglomerate Bouygues, Orange, and Iliad signed a memorandum of understanding with Altice France on June 7 to buy French telecom operator SFR for 20.4 billion euros (US$23.7 billion), including debt, subject to regulatory approval.

The agreement followed months of talks after Altice France extended the exclusivity period to June 5 and the three operators raised their offer in April from about 17 billion euros (US$19.8 billion).

The price split remains about 42% for Bouygues Telecom, 31% for Iliad, and 27% for Orange. The memorandum of understanding also set break-up fees of 100 million euros (US$116 million) to 2 billion euros (US$2.32 billion).

If regulators approve the deal, France’s number of mobile network operators would fall to three from four.

The deal would reshape one of Europe’s largest telecom markets, which generates about 30 billion euros (US$34.9 billion) in annual telecom revenue. SFR is one of France’s four national mobile network operators.

🔗 Source: Reuters

Recent SFR developments