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French telecoms operators Orange, Bouygues and Free have made a €17bn offer to buy most of billionaire Patrick Drahi’s Altice France, in what could be a landmark deal to consolidate the country’s market.
The non binding offer, made on Tuesday, would involve the three operators purchasing the bulk of SFR, the flagship telecoms business of Altice France, which is controlled by Drahi.
The deal would involve SFR’s consumer business — which includes mobile and fixed line broadband customers — being carved up between Bouygues, Free and Orange.
Bouygues and Free would divide the SFR unit providing services to companies between them.
Other Altice France assets, including SFR’s fixed line network and mobile phone spectrum, would be mostly split between the three operators.
The proposed offer has an enterprise value of €17bn, Orange, Bouygues and Iliad-owned Free said.
The split of the assets by value within the deal would be about 43 per cent in favour of Bouygues, 30 per cent for Free and 27 per cent for Orange, they added.
The deal — if accepted by Altice France — is expected to face intense regulatory scrutiny because it would reduce the number of mobile network operators in France from four to three and could prompt concerns about whether consumers will be asked to pay more for services.
Altice France did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Orange, Bouygues and Free said the offer was conditional on the completion of due diligence, in addition to regulatory approval.
Bouygues group chief executive Olivier Roussat said any deal would take at least 18 months to complete, and would likely close in the second half of 2027.
The agreement — if finalised — would put an end to Drahi’s 11 years of ownership of SFR and greatly reduce his role in the French telecoms market.
Any deal became easier after Drahi closed an agreement with creditors earlier this month to reduce Altice France’s debt level from €24bn to €15.5bn.
The offer by Orange, Bouygues and Free does not include Altice France’s controlling stake in XpFibre, a fixed line network that the Financial Times reported last month was the subject of a separate sales process.
Competition authorities in Brussels have been under pressure to permit more mergers of telecoms companies since a report last year about how to improve EU competitiveness by Mario Draghi, the former European Central Bank president.
Draghi’s report recommended allowing consolidation to create stronger businesses that are better placed to invest in network infrastructure.