Philippe Huguen | AFP | Getty Images<\/p>\n
Bouygues Telecom, Orange and Free-iliad have signed a memorandum of understanding with Altice France to buy telecoms operator SFR for 20.35 billion euros ($23.44 billion), including debt, the companies said on Saturday. <\/p>\n
The Bouygues-led consortium had said on Friday that, in view of the progress made in the negotiations, the parties had given themselves another 48 hours to finalize the agreements.<\/p>\n
Last month, Altice France extended the exclusivity period for talks with the consortium until June 5 from a prior deadline of May 16, after the three operators raised their offer in April from around 17 billion euros.<\/p>\n
If approved by regulators, the acquisition would rank among the biggest European telecoms deals in recent years.<\/p>\n
A break-up of SFR would reduce the number of mobile network operators in France to three from four, setting up a key test of antitrust authorities’ willingness to allow consolidation in Europe’s crowded telecoms market.<\/p>\n
Orange Chief Executive Christel Heydemann said in April that the company had begun regulatory discussions ahead of the deal and cited behavioral remedies as one possible route to approval.<\/p>\n
Under the agreed terms, the split of the price among buyers remains at about 42% for Bouygues Telecom, 31% for the Free-iliad Group, and 27% for Orange.<\/p>\n
The MoU also provides for break-up fees of between 0.1 billion euros and 2 billion euros.<\/p>\n