Discreet meeting at the top between Free and Altice
By Gilles Fontaine on the 10.01.2019 at 16h05
Dexter Goei, president of Altice and Thomas Reynaud, general manager of Iliad have lunched this afternoon in a restaurant in Paris, raising rumors about a possible consolidation in telecoms.
Discussions for consolidation in the telecom sector in France have they resumed? Dexter Goei, president of Altice and Thomas Reynaud, managing director of Iliad-Free, were seen lunch together, this Thursday afternoon, in a restaurant of the eighth arrondissement of Paris. Neither group commented on this meeting at the highest level. But this discussion between the men of trust of the owners of the two groups is far from innocuous. And relaunch the speculation on a possible passage of four to three operators on the French market.
Based in New York, Dexter Goei, the right-hand man of Patrice Drahi, Altice's largest shareholder, is now focused on expanding the group in the United States. Former financial director of Iliad , Thomas Reynaud took the operational direction last spring. The two men know each other, especially by their past business banker - JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley for the first and Societe Generale for the second. Both have a solid reputation as a "deal maker". They were in the front row during previous consolidation attempts over the past four years.
New hypothesis
Discussions had resumed, a year ago, informally, but supported, according to several players in the sector. The scenario envisaged was then that of a merger between SFR (Altice) and Bouygues Télécom. They had finally stopped at the beginning of the summer. The new hypothesis of a union between Iliad and SFR is the only one that has not yet been studied. It would hold the rope today, according to a good connoisseur of the sector. Indeed, Martin Bouygues does not intend to sell its telecom business and the evolution of the capital of Orange is not relevant.
A consolidation movement in the sector is considered likely by the observers. The government and the regulator, Arcep, implicitly announced that they would not oppose such an operation. Which should begin in the next four months: the process of allocation of new frequencies 5G should indeed be launched in April, thus closing the window of negotiations for this sixth attempt of consolidation in the French telecom.