France: Altice stands by Bouygues Telecom offer

Billionaire Patrick Drahi’s Altice SA said Bouygues SA never asked for more details about its bid for Bouygues Telecom that’s worth at least 10 billion euros ($11 billion) before rejecting it.

The rebuffed offer included 9 billion euros in cash payable at completion of the transaction, and an additional 1 billion euros either in shares of Numericable-SFR — Altice’s French unit — or in cash payable three years later, Alice said in a statement Thursday, for the first time giving financial details of its proposal to acquire France’s third-largest mobile-phone company.

The offer was fully financed with the help of BNP Paribas, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley, Altice said. It included 3.5 billion euros to 4 billion euros in bank debt and the remainder comprising existing cash, Numericable-SFR shares and proceeds from asset sales, it said.

Altice didn’t say in the release whether it plans to improve its bid.

Full content: The Wall Street Journal

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