PARIS--The French government is hoping that a takeover bid on
mobile phone operator SFR will stop the price war that has weakened
the country's mobile phone companies, as the number of competitors
is cut to three from four, industry minister Arnaud Montebourg said
in an interview to daily Le Parisien.
The sale of SFR, a unit of media conglomerate Vivendi SA
(VIV.FR), has spurred a bidding war between conglomerate Bouygues
SA (EN.FR) and cable-investment firm Altice SA (ATC.AE), which owns
cable operator Numericable Group SA. Bouygues last week offered
10.5 billion euros ($14.6 billion) in cash to merge its Bouygues
Télécom unit with SFR. Altice offered EUR11 billion in a competing
bid.
Mr. Montebourg said that if Numericable takes over SFR, the
ongoing price war between the four mobile phone
operators--including Iliad SA(ILD.FR)'s Free and Orange SA
(ORA.FR)--won't stop, and that one of the four companies is likely
to be pushed out of the market.
"Destructive competition will stop if we go back to three mobile
phone operators," Mr. Montebourg told the newspaper. "It won't stop
if Numericable conquers SFT, because there will still be four
competitors. In the end, either Free or Bouygues will be all washed
up, with thousands of jobs lost."
The minister also repeated that the government expects from the
bidders a commitment not to cut jobs, to float the new company on
the Paris stock exchange, to keep the headquarters and research and
development centers in France and to use French supplier
Alcatel-Lucent SA (ALU.FR) for their equipment.
Newspaper website: www.leparisien.fr
Write to Gabriele Parussini at gabriele.parussini@wsj.com