PARIS--Altice SA (ATC.AE), French businessman Patrick Drahi's
holding company, Tuesday confirmed it had made a firm offer to
French conglomerate Vivendi SA (VIV.FR) for a majority stake in its
mobile telephone unit SFR.
Mr. Drahi's company, which controls telecom company Numericable
SA (NUM.FR), has offered 10.9 billion euros (about $15.15 billion)
in cash and would grant a 32% stake to Vivendi in the new merged
Numericable-SFR unit, Altice said Tuesday in a statement. The offer
is valid until Friday, the company added.
"We believe that this is the most compelling offer for Vivendi
and the French telecommunications market," Altice said in the
statement. Merging SFR and Numericable is "the only credible
project to bring fiber and very high speed broadband to the entire
country, delivering credible and realizable advantages for
employees, consumers and suppliers in France."
Altice has maintained its bid after French conglomerate Bouygues
SA (EN.FR) made a rival offer for the control of SFR last week.
Bouygues offered EUR10.5 billion to merge its mobile phone unit
Bouygues Telecom with SFR.
To fend off opposition from antitrust authorities, Bouygues
offered to sell part of its infrastructure network to smaller
telephone company Iliad SA (ILD.FR) for EUR1.8 billion.
Write to Inti Landauro at inti.landauro@wsj.com
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