Bouygues in contact with investment funds, including CVC and institutional investors to join bid for SFR - reports
The listed, French conglomerate Bouygues is understood to have contacted numerous parties which could take part in the proposed bid for the mobile phone operator SFR, French daily Le Figaro reported.
The unsourced report said Bouygues advisers Rothschild and HSBC are believed to have contacted several investment funds, including CVC Capital Partners and institutional investors.
Artemis, the investment holding of the Pinault family, the listed French outdoor advertising specialist JCDecaux, and the state-owned financial services group CDC, have already vowed to participate in the bidding.
The offer includes a EUR 13.1bn cash element and a 21.5% stake for the listed media group Vivendi, the current owner of SFR. Adding new investors would help Vivendi exit its investment in SFR faster, the report noted.
The article said Vivendi is currently in exclusive talks with the listed cable operators Altice and Numericable. Bouygues and its legal adviser Darrois are pushing for Vivendi to break up talks before the end of the exclusivity period, scheduled on 4 April, arguing that the newly improved offer is good enough reason to do so, as well as a duty towards the shareholders of the group.
The item, however, added lawyers for Vivendi, including Bompoint and Allen & Overy, are arguing that breaking the exclusive talks prematurely would be “illegal”. The report added there are, therefore, chances that the issue could end up before the courts, no matter the outcome of the negotiations and the identity of the final buyer for SFR.
This development was also reported in the French daily La Tribune, which said Bouygues is also contacting insurers which could be interested in taking part in the bidding process. One person familiar with the situation was cited as saying the shares retained by Vivendi post-completion could be reduced to 5% or 10% of the combined Bouygues Telecom-SFR merged entity.
One analyst at Oddo said that with an estimated value of EUR 15.5bn for SFR before synergies, Bouygues may have to only find an additional EUR 2.3bn from new investors to make an all-cash offer for SFR, the report noted.
Source Le Figaro, La Tribune