Volkswacht Bodensee - French telecoms join forces to break up embattled SFR

Orange, Iliad and Bouygues Telecom said they would split the bulk of SFR's assets among themselves in an offer valuing them at 17 billion euros ($19.7 billion).

The firms have made no secret of their interest since SFR's parent company Altice had to restructure its 24 billion euro debt load with creditors earlier this year.

The restructuring, one of the biggest ever in Europe and approved by a Paris commercial court in August, saw the debt trimmed to 15.5 billion euros but gave creditors a 45 percent stake in the company.

Altice's billionaire owner Patrick Drahi, who had borrowed massively to amass a telecoms and media empire but has recently been forced to sell assets, will retain a 55 percent stake.

If the takeover bid is successful, Bouygues would acquire 43 percent of SFR's operations, Iliad 30 percent and Orange 27 percent.

In a joint statement they said the non-binding deal would let them "step up investments in superfast network resilience, in cybersecurity and in new technologies such as artificial intelligence", while consolidating control over "strategic infrastructure in France".

Altice reported in August a nine percent drop in quarterly revenue to 2.3 billion euros, as mobile subscriber numbers fell by around 300,000 on the year to 19.3 million.

T.Germann--VB