By Ruth Bender
PARIS--The controlling shareholder of French cable operator
Numericable Group SA (NUM.FR) Wednesday said he would not increase
his bid for Vivendi SA's (VIV.FR) SFR.
In an interview Patrick Drahi said he had no reason to raise his
offer. "I have worked seven years on this," Mr. Drahi told French
daily Les Echos. "I have no reason to modify it."
Mr. Drahi's comment comes as Altice SA (ATC.AE), the
Luxemburg-based holding group that controls Numericable, finds
itself in a race with French conglomerate Bouygues SA (EN.FR) to
buy SFR.
Altice on Tuesday confirmed it had made a firm offer to Vivendi
which includes EUR10.9 billion in cash and would grant a 32% stake
to Vivendi in the newly merged Numericable-SFR unit.
Bouygues on the other hand offered EUR10.5 billion in cash and a
46% stake in a newly merged Bouygues Telecom-SFR group.
Mr Drahi reiterated that his offer stands until Friday. He said
a merged Numericable-SFR would be based and listed and pay taxes in
France, in a bid to reassure French officials. He also said he
would be the president of a merged group if his offer is
picked.
It comes as Numericable, which listed on the Paris stock
exchange last November, posted a 32% drop in full-year profit. Net
profit fell to 65 million euros ($90.16 million) in 2013 from EUR86
million in the prior year, after it was hit by financial costs
linked to acquiring new clients.
Revenue rose 0.9% to EUR1.31 billion and the group's total
customers rose 5% to 1.71 million.
Write to Ruth Bender at ruth.bender@wsj.com
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