EU: Orange, Bouygues to meet Wednesday on wireless sale

Orange SA and Bouygues SA are racing to reach an agreement on Orange’s purchase of Bouygues’ mobile-phone business in time for the boards of both companies to vote on the transaction Wednesday, according to people familiar with the matter.

The companies had set a goal of concluding a deal by Thursday, but hurdles remain and it’s possible the talks won’t succeed by the time the boards hold separate meetings tentatively scheduled for Wednesday, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are confidential. The talks may still end in failure, they said. Some Bouygues Telecom assets will be sold to France’s two other wireless carriers, Iliad SA and Numericable-SFR, in the transaction to avoid antitrust issues.

Discussions have been under way for months over a long-sought deal to reduce the number of mobile-phone companies in France to three from four. The talks, which would value Bouygues Telecom at about 10 billion euros, have been slow as the companies struggle to align the interests of all four parties, plus find an agreement on how big a stake in Orange the French government will retain, people with knowledge of the negotiations have said.

Full content: Bloomberg

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