Altice rejects €17bn offer from Bouygues, Orange, Free-iliad

(Sharecast News) - French telecom group Altice has rejected a joint proposal by Bouygues Telecom, Free-iliad Group and Orange to buy a large stake worth €17bn. Plans put forward by the three companies on Tuesday proposed Bouygues taking a 43% stake, Free-iliad owning 30% and Orange 27% - giving Altice an implied enterprise value of more than €21bn.

However, Altice, owned by billionaire Patrick Drahi, said that it had immediately rejected the offer on Wednesday.

The non-binding offer covered most of Altice subsidiary SFR's assets, but excluded stakes in Intelcia, UltraEdge and XP Fibre and Altice Technical Services, as well as Altice activities in French overseas departments and regions.

The proposal would have seen SFR's B2B business taken over by Bouygues Telecom and Free-iliad, while the B2C division would have been shared between the three companies.

Bouygues was trading 8.3% higher at €41.93 by 1531 in Paris, while Orange gained 3.8% to €14.08.